Farmers' Knowledge Level Regarding Pesticide Use and Its Impact on Health and Environment in Iraq

Abstract

This research dealt with studying the reality of farmers’ use of personal protective equipment when dealing with agricultural pesticides in the Baghdad region, by distributing a scientific questionnaire to a sample of (300) farmers. The study aimed to determine the extent of this group's awareness of the importance of using prevention tools, analyze the level of knowledge, discover awareness gaps, and understand the relationship between demographic variables (age, gender) and academic level.

The results showed a significant decline in the level of knowledge, with the “very weak” category accounting for nearly a third of the sample (90 farmers), followed by the “weak” category with a large percentage (60 farmers), while the “average” and “good” categories showed lower percentages, and no cases were recorded in the “very good” or “excellent” categories. This indicates a near-total lack of preventive culture among farmers, exposing them to significant health risks resulting from direct contact with pesticides without proper protection. A small group (10 individuals) was also found to have no knowledge of how to use protective equipment, a serious indicator that must be addressed.

In terms of age distribution, the sample included farmers of different ages ranging from 18 years to more than 70 years, and they were divided into four age groups. These distributions indicate that awareness was not limited to a specific age group, but rather that the decline in awareness was general across all groups. As for gender, the majority were males (about 250), compared to a small percentage of females (50), reflecting the reality of agricultural work in Iraq, which is dominated by males.