3.6. Farmers’ attitudes to pesticide usage and impacts
Except for the farmers in the lowland village Magassi,
most farmers had received no training on pesticide use
from the department of agriculture or any other organization
(Table 6). Besides pesticide spraying being not a topic
of high priority as discussed earlier, villages with difficult
access being unlike Magassi located at greater distance
from the highway are clearly less involved in training
programs. Nonetheless, they are well aware of the adverse
effects of pesticides on human health, with about one-third
of the interviewees experiencing various symptoms of
poisoning, including nausea, headaches and burning skin
and eye irritation during and after application. There are,
in this survey, also various reports of people who in the last
couple of years have committed suicide (6) or almost died
(4) after drinking pesticides (Thiodan in 5 cases, Cymbush
in 2, and Decis and Tamaron in 1 each). One 6-year-old
boy died after accidentally drinking a pesticide from a
bottle kept in a cabinet next to the one with the vitamin
syrup he was intending to take.
While most farmers do not believe in the slogan ‘‘the
more pesticides the better’’, only a minority recognize the
need to apply a balanced dosage to their crops. Furthermore,
farmers prefer to spray their crops after noticing
insects or weeds in the field and generally refrain from
preventive spraying, particularly in the more remote
villages. Farmers sometimes mix active ingredients or
pesticide formulations in ways not recommended by the
manufacturers. The number of farmers that adhere to the
usage instructions provided on the pesticide packaging is
considerably lower than expected (only 27% of the total
number of farmers interviewed).