A Study on Farmers Perception and Use of Plant Protection Chemicals on Vegetable Cultivation in Yadagiri District of Hyderabad Karnataka

Plant protection chemicals have substantially contributed for controlling of pests and diseases for increasing crop yields by reducing losses. But over the years there is growing concern about indiscriminate use of plant protection chemicals in agriculture. This paper attempts to understand the farmers’ knowledge and perceptions of pests, diseases and plant protection chemicals use in vegetable cultivationand analyzesthe plant protectionchemicals use practices and the intensity of plant protection chemicals use in vegetable cultivation. Plant protection chemicals use has resulted in various socioeconomic and environmental implications. Visualizing the importance of these issues, the present study therefore, is an attempt in this direction and likely to highlight various issues relating to plant protection chemicals usage in vegetable production. The result shows that on an average 35 per cent of the farmers were aware about plant protection chemicals hazards in vegetable cultivation. Most of the farmers (80%) perceived that frequency of insects and disease infestation has increased over the past 10 years. It was also observed that farmers have not followed adequate safety measures regarding plant protection chemicals application. The high plant protection chemical use cost was observed in vegetables especially in Chilli, Brinjal, Tomato, Okra etc., and most of the plant protection chemicals belonged to high and moderate risk chemicals. Increasing farmers’ awareness of plant protection chemicals hazards to the environment andpromotion of alternative pest management strategies such as use of bio-pesticides, IPM, IDM, INM etc is essential for reducing adverse effect on environment and health hazards.