Vol. 11, Special Issue 5 (2022)

Author(s):
Shailendra Singh Rathour, Amit Kumar, Dr. Mukesh Kumar Maurya, Dr. Ameesh Joh Stephen and Dr. Anupriya Paul

Abstract:
Agriculture is the most important sector of the economy in India as it provides food and livelihood and security. The industrialization of agriculture favored the use of plenty of agrochemicals including fertilizers, pesticides, micro nutrients, and plant growth regulators in the agricultural fields. Pesticides are an integral part of modern agriculture. The use of pesticides in agriculture is obvious for the prevention of crop-damaging pests, fungus, unwanted plants (weeds) and a number of crop-eating animals like rodents etc. The present research was designed to study the perception pattern of pesticides, farmer's knowledge about the safe handling and application of pesticides and their practices on pesticide usage. In-depth field surveys were undertaken with 130 farmers and complemented with focus Group Discussions, Interview, Questionnaires, and Field Observation. The results showed that the consumption pattern of pesticides is 17.7% marginal farmer, 43.9% small farmer, 6.2% semi medium and 1.5% medium farmer consumed pesticide for pest control; 3.1% marginal farmer, 12.3% small farmer, 5.4% semi medium farmer and 0.8% medium farmer consumed pesticides for high yield. Imidacloprid, Dimethoate, Monocrotophos, Chlorpyrifos, Phorate in insecticide, Carbendazim, Mancozeb in fungicide and Pendimethalin, Atrazine in herbicide were the most frequently used pesticides. we analyzed that 85.38% i.e 111 farmer purchase from private dealers, 5.38% i.e 7 farmers purchase from co-operative society, 6.15% i.e 8 farmer purchase from agriculture department and remaining 3.1% i.e 4 farmer purchase from agriculture depots. Hence, we can say that most of the farmers go to the private dealers for purchasing. As per the sample size of 130 farmers, according to which 24.61% farmer go with same brand with quantity, 43.03% farmer go with same brand with reduce quantity and 32.3% farmer go with low price brand or another brand. It was also observed that the farmers have knowledge of handling and spraying of pesticides. Safety measures while spraying of pesticides were being practiced by the farmers. 50.8% read the labels, 60.8% were orally educated, 94.6% waprayed in morning and evening, 58.5% attended trainings, workshops and 48.5% did not eat or drink during spraying pesticides. Some of the farmers were found smoking and chewing tobacco while spraying pesticides some of the respondents claimed immediate health hazards after pesticide application. There is no safe chemical, but there are safe ways to use chemicals.