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Research & Reviews : Journal of Statistics

Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of Farmers and Farmworkers on Pesticide Use and Safety in Meskan District, Guraghe zone, Southern Ethiopia

  1. Fikadu Amare
  2. Solomon Sorsa

Abstract

Farmers and farmworkers use pesticides to destroy, repel, or otherwise lower pest infestations to protect crops from damage in the world; this is also true in Ethiopian too. However, the variation or lack of the knowledge, attitude and practices of pesticide users is the bottleneck for sustainable use. The title of the study was knowledge,  attitudes  and  practices  of  farmers  and  farm workers  at  the  three  kebeles  (Mekicho, Yetebon and Enseno Usme) of Meskan district from December 2017 to May 2018.  The current study aimed at assessing farmers’ and farmworkers’ knowledge, attitude and practices on pesticide use and safety in Meskan district, Guraghe zone, Southern Ethiopia. The study cross-sectional, and both purposive and random sampling techniques were used to collect data from 322 households of three kebeles in the study area and the study populations were irrigation user farmers and farm workers. Descriptive, binary logistic regression and bivariate logistic regression model were used to assess the factors that affect the KAP of farmers and farm workers. More than half (55%) of farmers and nearly 63% of farmworkers had good knowledge. The model output showed that age, education level, annual estimated income and work experience of the farmers and farm workers were statistically significant (p<0.05) and are positively affect pesticide user farmers and farm workers. Knowledge including, the names of the pesticides (AOR, 0.57; 95%CI, 0.36–0.92), awareness on pesticides adverse effect (AOR, 3; 95%CI, 2.1–4.7), knowing the importance of PPEs (AOR, 0.77; 95%CI, 0.5–1.08) and (AOR, 0.7; 95%CI, 0.48–1.0) for both farmers and farm workers, respectively, was significantly associated with farmers’ knowledge towards safe use of pesticides. The finding of the study suggested that the government and  concerned stakeholders  should  give  emphasis  to  provision  of  formal  and  informal  education,  provision  of information,  enhancing  farmers’ income  alternatives, providing,  monitoring  and  evaluating recommended pesticide types and personal protective equipment (PPEs) to the study area.

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