Raising Farmers Environmental Awareness in the Use of Pesticides and Agriculture Machinery

Abstract

The study was mainly to determine the farmers awareness in the use of pesticides and
agricultural machinery used to spray pesticides in East Tripoli, Libya. Quantitative
methods were used with questionnaires administered to 300 respondents as farmers
and the result was statistically analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science
SPSS. From 8 research questions considered, the results showed that in East Tripoli the
farmers earn 50% of their income by selling their farm products in the market which
are mainly vegetables. Most of the farmers own a store to keep and protect their
chemicals under lock in the chemical original packs. For the farmers to know the
hazards associated with the chemicals or pesticides to be used they read the
instructions before use and they wear protective clothes while preparing the solution.
The types of protective clothes the farmers in East Tripoli majorly wear are gloves and
this type of PPE has been used for the past 11 years and above. There is a statistically
significant and linear combination of independent factors significantly related to PPE’s
that protect the farmers from danger and farmers’ knowledge about safe use of PPE’s.
There is a statistically significant difference between male and female farmers influence
on the awareness of spraying plant and vegetal plants. Therefore, gender influences
the awareness of spraying plants and vegetal products. There is no correlation or
relationship between farmer’s education level and purchasing of agricultural products.
Therefore, farmer’s education level affects purchasing agricultural products. There is
also no correlation or relationship between application of PPE and type of sprayer. The
result suggested that monthly income does not have any significant positive difference
in the use of machineries associated with pesticide application. The farmers are aware
of modern machinery for spraying of pesticides and they also use irrigation system
during the process of spraying which indicates that they make use.