FARMERS‟ AWARENESS CONCERNING HARMFUL EFFECT OF INSECTICIDES ON ENVIRONMENT

Abstract

The main purpose of this research was to assess farmers‟ awareness concerning harmful effect of insecticides on environment. Besides, attempt was made to explore the contribution of the selected characteristics of the farmers on their awareness concerning harmful effect of insecticides on environment. The study was conducted at Damurhuda upazila under Chuadanga district. Data were collected by interviewing 119 randomly selected farmers of three villages of Damurhuda union. The majority (47.90%) of the farmers had low awareness concerning harmful effect of insecticides on environment, while 40.34 percent and 11.76 percent of them had medium and high awareness respectively. Step-wise multiple regressions method was administered and 10 independent variables namely: age, education, family size, farm size, annual income, farming experience, agricultural knowledge, extension contact, training on pest management and knowledge on IPM were fitted together in step-wise multiple regression analysis. Stepwise multiple regression exposed that knowledge on IPM, education, age and training on pest management had significant contribution to their awareness concerning harmful effect of insecticides on environment. These four variables combinedly explained 67 percent of the total variation on awareness concerning harmful effect of insecticides on environment, where knowledge on IPM of the respondent had highest (57.3%) contribution to awareness concerning harmful effect of insecticides on environment followed by level of education (6.7%).