IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/riskan/v26y2006i4p989-995.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Egyptian Farmers' Attitudes and Behaviors Regarding Agricultural Pesticides: Implications for Pesticide Risk Communication

Author

Listed:
  • Olurominiyi O. Ibitayo

Abstract

The need to boost pre‐ and postharvest agricultural productivity serves as a powerful driving force for developing countries to promote the use of agricultural pesticides. Pesticides are, however, “poisons by design” and poisonings resulting from unsafe use of these chemicals are the most prevalent and serious occupational hazards faced by agricultural workers in developing countries. This article provides the results of a study designed to investigate the extent of unsafe use of pesticides by farmers in one of the largest agricultural areas in Egypt, the farmers' knowledge about pesticides, and their preferred sources of receiving risk information on pesticides. The results of this study show a high level of unsafe use of pesticides and inappropriate methods of disposal of empty pesticide containers. Also, knowledge about pesticides is scant. Notwithstanding that more than half of the farmers obtain regular drinking water from wells, most of the respondents were “not sure” as to whether or not pesticides may contaminate groundwater. The low level of knowledge about pesticides can be attributed to relatively low levels of education and that almost all the respondents have never participated in a pesticide education program. This article concludes with a recommendation for pesticide and pesticide use education programs, especially through “ministry officials” who most of the respondents seem to trust regarding receiving pesticide information.

Suggested Citation

  • Olurominiyi O. Ibitayo, 2006. "Egyptian Farmers' Attitudes and Behaviors Regarding Agricultural Pesticides: Implications for Pesticide Risk Communication," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(4), pages 989-995, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:wly:riskan:v:26:y:2006:i:4:p:989-995
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1539-6924.2006.00794.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1539-6924.2006.00794.x
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1539-6924.2006.00794.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Adekunle, C.P. & Akinbode, S.O. & Akerele, D. & Oyekale, T.O. & Koyi, O.V., 2017. "Effects of agricultural pesticide utilization on farmers health in Egbeda Local Government Area, Oyo State, Nigeria," Nigerian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Nigerian Journal of Agricultural Economics, vol. 7(1), October.
    2. Diendéré, Achille & Nguyen, Geneviève & Del Corso, Jean-Pierre & Kephaliacos, Charilaos, 2018. "Modeling the Relationship Between Pesticide Use and Farmers' Beliefs about Water Pollution in Burkina Faso," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 114-121.
    3. Marta Regina Cezar-Vaz & Clarice Alves Bonow & Joana Cezar Vaz, 2015. "Risk Communication Concerning Welding Fumes for the Primary Preventive Care of Welding Apprentices in Southern Brazil," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-17, January.
    4. Christopher Nwadike & Victoria Ibukun Joshua & Paulina J. S. Doka & Rahaf Ajaj & Ummu Abubakar Hashidu & Sajoh Gwary-Moda & Mela Danjin & Haruna Musa Moda, 2021. "Occupational Safety Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice among Farmers in Northern Nigeria during Pesticide Application—A Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-13, September.
    5. Sovit Parajuli & Bishal Mahatara & Srijan Budhathoki & Manoj Paudel & Kiran Parajuli & Aavash Adhikari, 2021. "Scenario Of Pesticide Import, Formulation, Consumption And The Residue Status Among Agricultural Crops In Nepal," Big Data In Agriculture (BDA), Zibeline International Publishing, vol. 3(2), pages 94-99, July.
    6. Ismail Bulent Gurbuz, 2024. "Analysis in Terms of Environmental Awareness of Farmers’ Decisions and Attitudes: Reducing Pesticide Use and Risks," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(11), pages 1-18, May.
    7. Christos A. Damalas & Ilias G. Eleftherohorinos, 2011. "Pesticide Exposure, Safety Issues, and Risk Assessment Indicators," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 8(5), pages 1-18, May.
    8. Xiaofeng Fan & Zhaojun Wang & Yumeng Wang, 2024. "Rural Business Environments, Information Channels, and Farmers’ Pesticide Utilization Behavior: A Grounded Theory Analysis in Hainan Province, China," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 14(2), pages 1-27, January.
    9. Nufail Khan & Alison Kennedy & Jacqueline Cotton & Susan Brumby, 2019. "A Pest to Mental Health? Exploring the Link between Exposure to Agrichemicals in Farmers and Mental Health," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(8), pages 1-20, April.
    10. Philip Aniah & Millar Katherine Kaunza-Nu-Dem & Philemon Puordeme Dong-Uuro & Joseph A. Ayembilla & Issaka Kanton Osumanu, 2021. "Vegetable farmers’ knowledge on pesticides use in Northwest Ghana," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(5), pages 7273-7288, May.
    11. Asghar Bagheri & Naier Emami & Christos A. Damalas, 2023. "Monitoring point source pollution by pesticide use: an analysis of farmers’ environmental behavior in waste disposal," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(7), pages 6711-6726, July.
    12. Kirui, O., 2018. "Skill Development, Human Capital and Economic Outcomes: Impact of Post-Secondary Education among Smallholder Farmers in Africa," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277068, International Association of Agricultural Economists.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:riskan:v:26:y:2006:i:4:p:989-995. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)1539-6924 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.