Vegetable farmers’ behaviour and knowledge related to pesticide use and related health problems: A case study from Bangladesh

Proper pesticide use is crucial to farmers' health and environmental protection. However, the factors affecting a farmer's behaviour with regards to pesticide use remain largely unknown in Bangladesh, particularly for vegetable farmers. Hence, we investigated the use of pesticides by vegetable growers amongst 101 households in an intensive vegetable growing area of Jamalpur district in Bangladesh. Each farmer's background, knowledge, attitude, health problems, experience, protective behaviour, and pesticide use were collected in order to examine the behavioural activities of farmers in relation to their pesticide use and to identify the related factors effecting use. The majority of vegetable growers have long term experience with pesticide use and are involved in full-time vegetable growing. However, even with this long term experience,…