Pesticides Pollution: Perceptions of Farmers in Punjab

Like most other developing countries, India has benefited from the availability of a growing spectrum of pest control chemicals but has produced its share of pesticide poisoning and wider environmental contamination. In past years, pesticide pollution has become one of the major agendas among environmental problems. Pesticide pollution basically refers to development of more specialized and toxic chemicals and their increased use. These chemicals include a wide variety of insecticide, fungicide, herbicides, etc. Pesticide residues in food have been investigated in India over the last three decades. Varying amount of DDT and BHC residues have been found in agricultural products like milk, fats, meat, fodder, etc. This study was conducted to explore the ideas, attitude and level of understanding of Punjab farmers about the benefits and hazards of pesticides. The results clearly showed that Punjab farmers have poor knowledge about management and handling of pesticides. Majority of Punjab farmers were aware of the fact that pesticides get washed by rain water and move into water bodies, body should be covered properly during pesticides handling, and crop rotation would minimize pesticide consumption. However, many misconceptions like crop production increases with increased number of spray, alcohol is an alternative for pesticides, vegetable can be preserved by spraying pesticides, pesticides mixed with the fertilizerswould destroypestsmoreeffectively, and food products size would increase with use of pesticides are prevailing in the mind of Punjab farmers.