Assessment on Pesticide Knowledge and Usage by Apple Farmers in Foussana Delegation, Kasserine Governorate, in Center-West of Tunisia

Abstract

Apple farmers in center-west of Tunisia are heavily dependent on pesticides to ensure the phytosanitary protection of their orchards. The  present study was carried out among the apple growers of the delegation of Foussana using face-to-face interviews to determine socio- demographic characteristics, status of pest management, their levels of knowledge of pesticide handling, their ability to understand the  displayed instructions on product labels and the use of personal protective equipment (PPE). The results showed that farmers used 3  classes of pesticides in their orchards: insecticides (47.76%), fungicides (28.36%) and acaricides (23.88%) among them 96.3% were  purchased from local retailers. About 25.61% of farmers declared reading always pesticide labels before application against 35.71% not  reading it at all and 38.68% were indifferent. About 57.3% of interviewed farmers applied pesticides in mixture. Among them, 31.7% mix 2  pesticides, 20.7% mixed 1 to 3 products together and 4.9% mixed 3 products in one tank. When mixing pesticides, the majority of farmers  do not respect the prescribed dose because of the lack of suitable graduate instrument. Only 3.7% of interviewed disposed and used full  PPE during pesticide spraying against 89.9% of them who used partial PPE. Regarding how to dispose empty containers, 89.65% of  farmers destroyed them by incineration against 11.2% who discard them in nature. These results indicated the unawareness of farmers  about the hazard linked to pesticide use. For that, it is important to implement measures to support and raise farmer’s awareness.