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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.
Sec. Agroecology and Ecosystem Services
Volume 8 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2024.1490110

Sustainable agriculture and responsible use of pesticides: Commercial crop cultivators' knowledge, attitudes, and practice perspectives regarding pesticide use

Provisionally accepted
Samitha Udayanga Samitha Udayanga 1*BKA Bellanthudawa BKA Bellanthudawa 2LSD Zoysa LSD Zoysa 2
  • 1 University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
  • 2 University of Ruhuna, Matara, Sri Lanka

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The excessive use of pesticides has been identified as a main barrier to sustainable agriculture in the developing countries, that can lead to several negative consequences, posing a significant threat to the total environment. Therefore, the present study investigated the informedness of smallholder vegetable farmers on responsible use of pesticides, exploring how their knowledge, attitudes and protective practices (KAP) are associated with the safe use of pesticides. A questionnaire survey was conducted with 206 smallholder farmers in the central highlands of Sri Lanka to identify how KAP are associated with responsible use of pesticides. Secondly, two focus group discussion were conducted to gain insights into the farmers' awareness of the responsible use of pesticides. The analysis reveals an overall deficiency in informedness about responsible pesticide use, primarily stemming from moderate level of knowledge and perceptions related to protective practices. Furthermore, farmers tend to face constraints due to limited access to information on responsible use of pesticides and a heavy reliance on pesticides, believing pesticides to be a primary means of increasing crops. Results also indicate a significant association between knowledge, practice, and informedness, whereas attitudes did not significantly contribute to informedness. Significant disparities in informedness were identified among different demographic groups, with men and younger farmers exhibiting higher levels of awareness. Thus, we suggest that farmers' informedness can be improved by targeted efforts to enhance their knowledge and correct misconceptions on the use of pesticides.

    Keywords: Informedness, Integrated Pest Management, Responsible use of pesticides, Smallholder farmers, Sociocultural reasons

    Received: 02 Sep 2024; Accepted: 04 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Udayanga, Bellanthudawa and Zoysa. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Samitha Udayanga, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.