ANALYSIS OF KNOWLEDGE AND AWARENESS OF PESTICIDES AMONG FARMERS IN EDIRNE PROVINCE, TURKEY: A DESCRIPTIVE FIELD-SURVEY STUDY

Abstract

As the world population increases, developing industry and technology have brought forward intensive agricultural practices in order to obtain more products in smaller areas. Therefore, farmers have started to use high amounts of various pesticides to grow more crops, destroying harmful species of plants and organisms in the fields. Most of the agricultural products are grown in the Thrace region in Turkey. Edirne is one of the provinces with the highest agricultural yield in this region. The use of pesticides in agricultural protection is also high due to the high agricultural yield. The present study aims to investigate the knowledge and awareness of the selection, application, storage, and disposal of pesticides among the farmers in Edirne Province. We prepared a survey to measure the awareness of pesticide use among 250 farmers who were randomly selected and actively engaged in agriculture. The research data were collected by conducting face-to-face interviews. The survey consisted of questions aimed at determining demographic characteristics as well as questions about the pesticide selection, application dosage, use of protective clothing and equipment during application, and safety and disposal methods. The findings were calculated as percentage pointed out that farmers experience serious difficulties in determining the application dosage of pesticides. The results of our study indicate that farmers are exposed to these substances at a maximum level as they do not take safety precautions and do not use personal protective equipment during application.