Thewidespread overuse of pesticides in agriculture has generated increasing concerns about the negative effects
of pesticides on human health and the environment. Understanding farmers' perceptions of risk of pesticides and
the determinants of pesticide overuse is important to modifying their behavior towards reducing pesticide use. A
survey of 250 randomly selected smallholder vegetable farmers in Kuwait was conducted to quantify the extent
of pesticide use, their pesticide risk perceptions and factors influencing their pesticide use behaviors. Themajority
of the farmers perceived pesticides pose somerisk to the environment (65%) and human health (70.5%),while
younger farmers were more likely to perceive this risk than older farmers. When asked to rate how risky pesticides
were regarding several aspects of human health and the environment on a scale of 1(not risky) to 5 (extremely
risky), concern was highest for the health of applicators (x̅= 4.28) and lowest for air quality (x̅=
2.32). The risk perceptions of the farmers did not have a positive influence on their pesticide use practices. A
total of 76 pesticide active ingredients were found in use, and 9% of these belong to the WHO toxicity class II
(moderately hazardous). On average, farmers applied 12.8 kg of active ingredients per hectare per year, and
58% of the farmers were found to have overused pesticides, with an average overuse rate of 2.5 kg. Pesticide application
frequency ranged from two times a month up to once a week, depending on the crop. A binary probit
model reveals that farmers' inadequate knowledge of pesticides, the influence of pesticide retailers and lack of
access to non-synthetic methods of pest control are positively associated with pesticide overuse, while the propensity
to overuse decreases with higher levels of education, training in Integrated PestManagement (IPM) and