Agricultural pesticide use and misuse: A study to assess the cognizance and practices among North Indian farmers

Sachan, Beena; Kandpal, Sunil Dutt; Singh, Arvind K.; Kaushik, Amit; Jauhari, Sugandha; Ansari, Arshi, Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care 11(10):p 6310-6314, October 2022. | DOI: 10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_405_22

Farmers’ cognizance of pesticide use and overuse and also practices for pesticide handling, play a very important role in safe spraying. Sai et al. (2019) had observed in their study among farmers of south India that about 61% of the farmers knew the harmful effects of pesticides. However, 22% of them were mixing the pesticides using their bare hands and 26% were not wearing any protective clothing during spraying pesticides. Around 67% were carelessly disposing the leftover pesticides in the open fields. Skin problems and neurological system disturbances were the most common pesticide-related health symptoms. Similarly, researchers of other low- and middle-income countries have also reported inadequate knowledge and practices for pesticides among the farmers.