Pesticide Use Pattern by Paddy Growers in Guntur District of Andhra Pradesh

Pesticides are an integral part of modern agriculture to meet the demands of increasing population. The present study focuses on the pesticide use pattern by paddy growers in Krishna Western Delta area of Guntur, Andhra Pradesh. In-depth field studies were carried at fortnightly intervals among 90 farmers from 30 representative villages. Overall, 703 pesticides applications were used in 280 sprayings, with an average of 3.45 sprayings per farmer and use of 8.67 pesticides indicating the usage of pesticide mixtures by majority (90.4%). The commonly used pesticides in the area are bispyribac sodium (98.8%), fenoxaprop-p-ethyl (98.8%) and metsulfuron methyl + chlorimuron ethyl (98.8%), all herbicides, because the farmers in this area follow direct seeding of rice. Among insecticides and fungicides, pymetrozine (56.8%) and hexaconazole (48.2%), respectively, were highly used. Although a great majority of the pesticide applications (92.3%) were with recommended pesticides, only 57% of them were applied at recommended doses.