KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND BEHAVIOUR OF PADDY GROWERS TOWARDS USE AND HANDLING OF PESTICIDES IN KRISHNA WESTERN DELTA AREA OF GUNTUR DISTRICT OF ANDHRA PRADESH, INDIAJ.H.V. Valluri, S.R. Cherukuri, Ch. Chiranjeevi, P.K. Varma4 and V.S. RaoAbstract Use of pesticides have become inevitable for crop pest management leading to increased cost of cultivation, pesticides residues in food and also making the farmers vulnerable to risks of pesticide application. Thus, study on paddy farmersâ knowledge and practices in handling pesticides was conducted among 90 farmers in Krishna Western Delta area of Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh, India. A great majority of the farmers were unaware about recommended pesticides (70.65%) as per Insecticide Act, 1968 and got the advisories on pesticide recommendation from retail pesticide shop dealers (66.30%). About 67.39% measured pesticide using bottle cap and majority of the farmers (63.04%) didnât follow any safety measure during pesticide application and 69.57% were unaware of the first aid practices to be followed in case of accidental poisoning. None of the farmers were aware of proper disposal methods and 80% throw the used pesticide containers into open fields or in the farm. |