Study area
The total area of Oman is 309,500 km2 with a total population estimated
at 2.7 million and 50% of the population living in Muscat and
the Al Batinah Governorates. Al Batinah is the main agricultural region
in Oman, with 44.3% of the total production of the country
(Anon, 2010). Given that the Al Batinah Governorates represent the
most intensively farmed region of Oman, it was this area that provided
the focus for the research. There are 10 Wilaya (administrative districts,
sing. = Wilayat) in the region and a single farmer's association
(FA) established under Ministerial Decision 126/2009 (Ministry of
Agriculture and Fisheries Wealth) in 2009 as the Agricultural Association
For Al-Batinah Farmers, a formofwhat Carney refers to as a Formal
Farmer Organisation (Carney, 1996). It currently has 65 members;
farmers apply to join the Association and pay a membership fee of
approximately 20 US$ per hectare per year. The primary objectives of
the Association include increased access to newtechnology, encouragement
of increased use of environmentally more benign pesticides,
sustainable use ofwater resources and collective marketing of products.
Thus it seems reasonable to hypothesise that FA members would be
better informed in terms of good pesticide handling practices and that
theywould confer some of that to their farmworkforce, at least relative
to non-FA members (Fig. 1).