Constraints in Adoption of Safer Pesticide Use Practices by Farmers in Telangana

AbstractFarmers use pesticides worldwide to safeguard products from pests and maximise farm output. However, lack of understanding among farmers, illiteracy, absence of standard pesticide use procedures, and inactive extension arm of the government has led farmers to follow unsafe practices which are harmful to their health and cause damage to the environment. The present study was undertaken to identify the constraints in adopting safer pesticide practices. Therefore, two districts of Telangana: Nalgonda and Karimnagar, were chosen purposively as they accounted for lion’s share in rice and cotton cropped areas. A multistage cluster sampling technique was employed to collect sample data. Forty farmers and twenty pesticide applicators were chosen at random from each village cluster. Thus, a total of 240 respondents were interviewed, comprising 160 farmers and 80 applicators. Friedman test was employed to rank constraints based on the mean rank obtained for each constraint. Results show that among technical factors, ‘limited availability of eco-friendly methods’ and ‘faking with adulterated /banned pesticides’ were the most severe constraints faced by farmers, with a mean rank of 5.83 and 4.95, respectively. Whereas applicators also considered ‘limited availability of eco-friendly methods’ followed by ‘lack of awareness on the safety measures’ were the main obstacles. Among economic constraints, ‘high cost of eco-friendly methods’ with a mean rank of 5.45, and ‘increased expenditure on protection equipments’ with a mean rank of 5.36 was the severe ones as perceived by farmers and applicators, respectively. ‘Discomfort in wearing the protection equipments, has been a severe constraint for both farmers (mean rank = 5.35) as well as for applicators (mean rank = 5.24) under occupational constraints. In conclusion, it calls for a more substantial assurance/guarantee by the government to provide extensive training on safe pesticides practices.