2. Materials and methods
The study was conducted in five rural regions of prefecture of
Pieria. The prefecture of Pieria is located at the southern part
of northern Greece, covers a total area of 1516 km2, and has a
population of 134,739 habitants. The examined regions
include a great proportion of rural population heavily dependent
on cereal crop production, tobacco production, tree fruit
production, and also dairy operations and they were randomly
selected to obtain a representative sample for all the area.
One hundred and sixty-two farmers participated voluntarily
in the study. The surveyed population included local
farmers over 21 years living all year in the regions studied.
Selection of farmers was totally random. Initially, prospective
participants were identified by farmers' complete lists kept at
the Directorate of Agricultural Development of Pieria and then
were contacted by telephone to find out if they were willing to
participate in the study. To avoid any potential bias, it was
made clear to the farmers that the study was only for
academic research. In case a farmer refused to participate,
the selection procedure was repeated until an adequate
sample was obtained. Based on the time frame set and the
available financial sources for this project, an adequate
sample was defined as any sample which would provide
error less than 10% at 95% confidence level.
All participants of the survey were full-time farmers
earning off their income mainly from agricultural activities.
Most of them were small-scale landowners (owners of about
5 ha but no more than 10 ha) with small family farms.
However, it must be noted here that the size of a landholding
alone is not always a good criterion for categorizing farmers.
Farmers who own 1 ha of irrigated land are generally more
prosperous than those who own 2 ha of land in an area prone
to drought with low productivity. Field sizes varied considerably
from small and spatially dispersed parcels to much
greater plots due to the great fragmentation of the arable land.
Data were collected by means of a structured questionnaire
administered via personal interviews. This method was used
because some of the respondents did not have formal education
and many of those who had some education might not be
familiar with the terminology used in the questionnaire. The
questionnaire contained both fix-response and open-ended
questions about common practices of farmers on disposal of
pesticide waste after use. In particular, farmers were presented
with a number of multiple choice tests and were asked to
choose the answer which they thought it best described their
attitude for each particular case. Besides closed questions, free
space for alternative answerswas also included in all questions.
The questions and the possible alternative answers were read
to interviewees by the interviewers who ticked the given
answer(s). The interviews were conducted in a friendly way
and there was very good cooperation without any refusals.
The raw data fromthe screening questionnaires were coded
and entered into specially designed databases (Microsoft
Access). Once the data had been initially entered they were
carefully checked for entry errors. Relative frequencies of
answers were calculated for each question. Data were transferred
to appropriate spreadsheets (Microsoft Excel) and SPSS
(version 10) for statistical analysis. Relative frequencies were
compared using the chi-square test to determine significant
differences in the proportions of given answers. Mean differences
were declared significant at the 95% confidence level.
2. Materials and methods
The study was conducted in five rural regions of prefecture of
Pieria. The prefecture of Pieria is located at the southern part
of northern Greece, covers a total area of 1516 km2, and has a
population of 134,739 habitants. The examined regions
include a great proportion of rural population heavily dependent
on cereal crop production, tobacco production, tree fruit
production, and also dairy operations and they were randomly
selected to obtain a representative sample for all the area.
One hundred and sixty-two farmers participated voluntarily
in the study. The surveyed population included local
farmers over 21 years living all year in the regions studied.
Selection of farmers was totally random. Initially, prospective
participants were identified by farmers' complete lists kept at
the Directorate of Agricultural Development of Pieria and then
were contacted by telephone to find out if they were willing to
participate in the study. To avoid any potential bias, it was
made clear to the farmers that the study was only for
academic research. In case a farmer refused to participate,
the selection procedure was repeated until an adequate
sample was obtained. Based on the time frame set and the
available financial sources for this project, an adequate
sample was defined as any sample which would provide
error less than 10% at 95% confidence level.
All participants of the survey were full-time farmers
earning off their income mainly from agricultural activities.
Most of them were small-scale landowners (owners of about
5 ha but no more than 10 ha) with small family farms.
However, it must be noted here that the size of a landholding
alone is not always a good criterion for categorizing farmers.
Farmers who own 1 ha of irrigated land are generally more
prosperous than those who own 2 ha of land in an area prone
to drought with low productivity. Field sizes varied considerably
from small and spatially dispersed parcels to much
greater plots due to the great fragmentation of the arable land.
Data were collected by means of a structured questionnaire
administered via personal interviews. This method was used
because some of the respondents did not have formal education
and many of those who had some education might not be
familiar with the terminology used in the questionnaire. The
questionnaire contained both fix-response and open-ended
questions about common practices of farmers on disposal of
pesticide waste after use. In particular, farmers were presented
with a number of multiple choice tests and were asked to
choose the answer which they thought it best described their
attitude for each particular case. Besides closed questions, free
space for alternative answerswas also included in all questions.
The questions and the possible alternative answers were read
to interviewees by the interviewers who ticked the given
answer(s). The interviews were conducted in a friendly way
and there was very good cooperation without any refusals.
The raw data fromthe screening questionnaires were coded
and entered into specially designed databases (Microsoft
Access). Once the data had been initially entered they were
carefully checked for entry errors. Relative frequencies of
answers were calculated for each question. Data were transferred
to appropriate spreadsheets (Microsoft Excel) and SPSS
(version 10) for statistical analysis. Relative frequencies were
compared using the chi-square test to determine significant
differences in the proportions of given answers. Mean differences
were declared significant at the 95% confidence level.
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