Awareness of Banned Pesticide usage among Vegetable Grower’s and Health impacts in the Vavuniya District

Abstract

Pesticides kill or deter the destructive activity of the target organism and they posses’ inherent toxicities that endanger the health of the farmers, consumers and the environment. The objectives of this study were to investigate the awareness of banned pesticide usage and study the health impacts caused by agrochemical in Vavuniya district. Primary data was collected from 120 randomly selected farmers among vegetable cultivators in Vavuniya district through questionnaire survey. Primary data were socio-demographic characteristics, pesticide management practices and health impacts. Secondary data were collected from RDHS (Regional Directorate of Health Service) in Vavuniya. The collected data were analyzed using the Pearson correlation test, frequency analysis and crosstabs in SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences), version 16. Almost all farmers depended on synthetic pesticides for the management of pest and 58% of the farmers used moderately hazardous (Class II) pesticides. Around 51% of the farmers applied the pesticides 10-20% higher than recommended level. Sixty two percentage of the farmers used banned pesticides and which are still available in the local market. Around 60% of the farmers harvested the products within seven days from the pesticide application. Number of cancer patients increased from 2010 (177 patients) to 2013 (300 patients) in Vavuniya District. Therefore, residual effect of pesticides, over dosage of pesticide usage and poor safety measures may cause kidney disease, cancer and liver failure in this study area.