Knowledge and practice of farmers on safe use and handling of chemical pesticides: in the case of Tigray, Northern Ethiopia

Abstract Globally, more than 2 million tons of pesticides are used every year, and many farmers use pesticides in violation of the recommendations, which may lead to adverse health effects. The study aimed to assess the knowledge and practices of farmers regarding the handling of chemical pesticides. A semi-structured questionnaire was developed and cross-sectional data were collected from 306 sample farmers using face-to-face interviews. Descriptive statistics and χ2 tests were used to analyze the collected data. Farmers listed the 10 most pesticide-consuming crops and 22 common pesticides used in their farms, including abamectin (“extremely hazardous”) and P,p′-DDT. Among the participants, 53.6% and 58.8% of the farmers received training and had awareness of the negative impact of pesticides, respectively. Of the total sample respondents, 54.9% never used personal protective equipment and 50.3% never read pesticide labels. Moreover, 77.1% and 74% of respondents stored pesticides anywhere in the living room and incorrectly disposed of empty containers, respectively, while 34.7% of the farmers harvested crops within 7 d after spraying. The use of personal protective equipment is significantly associated with farmers’ education (χ2 = 6.923; P = 0.031) and experience of pesticide use (χ2 = 9.487; P = 0.023). Generally, most of the farmers had poor practice in handling pesticides, and hence, it needs consistent follow-up and recurrent training to minimize the negative impact of pesticides, and to adopt integrated pest management as pest control method.