Agriculture is the most important sector of the economy in India as it provides food and livelihood security. The industrialization of agriculture has 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 consumption 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 500 farmers and complemented with focus Group Discussions, Interview, Questionnaires, and Field Observation. The results showed that the consumption pattern of pesticides included Insecticides (61.11%), Herbicides (22.22%) and fungicides (11.11%). Organophosphates were the most frequently used pesticides followed by neonicotinoid and pyrethroid. It was found that the cotton (93.27%) was the high pesticide consuming agroproduct followed by vegetables (87.2%), wheat (66.4%), millet (52.6%) and mustard (12.6%). It was also observed that the farmers have poor scientific knowledge of handling and spraying of pesticides. Safety measures while spraying of pesticides is not being practiced by the farmer at large. Many of the farmers were found smoking and chewing tobacco while spraying pesticides.49.8% of the respondents claimed immediate health hazards after pesticide application. There is no safe chemical, but there are safe ways to use chemicals.

Download this article as