Knowledge and Practices of Safe Use of Pesticides among a Group of Farmers in Northern Iran

The unsafe use of chemical pesticides, along with the lack of appropriate preventive protocols and equipment may damage the health of users. To determine the knowledge and practice of the safe use of chemical pesticides by farm workers in northern Iran. The present cross-sectional study was conducted on 300 farmers in Mazandaran province, in 2017. The data collection instrument was a two-part questionnaire: The first part was concentrated on demographic and agricultural characteristics of the participants; the second part dealt with the farmers' knowledge and practice of the safe use of pesticides. The mean knowledge and practice scores (out of 100) of the participating farmers in the safe use of pesticides were 84.8 (SD 13.5) and 50.8 (13.2), respectively. There was a significant positive correlation (r=0.466, p<0.001) between their knowledge and practice. Wearing protective clothes, while applying pesticides, was among safe practices. Although more than 60% of farmers had a sufficient level of knowledge of the safe use of pesticides, they did not implement their knowledge in practice. There was a significant (p<0.001) association between the education level and knowledge of the safe use of pesticides. There was a significant correlation between knowledge and practices of the safe use of pesticides among farmers in northern Iran. There was a clear know-do gap—although the majority of the participants possessed a sufficient level of knowledge of the safe use of pesticides, they did not implement it in practice.