Abstract:
Pesticides are the results of modern technology and synthetic organic poisons used to exterminate specific organisms by inhibiting certain vital functions. They are applied predominately to kill or control weeds, insect pests and animals. Pesticides are widely used because of ease of application, high efficiency, temporary economic return and etc. (Nagenthirarajah and Thiruchelvam, 2008). When pesticides are help to farmers to get high production, massive usage of pesticides have been reported in many of commercial cultivations in whole around the world (Wilson and Tiddsell, 2001). Similar to many developing countries, pesticide related issues in Sri Lanka have become a major concern in the present day context. Majority of cases have been occurred due to the excessive usage of pesticides. Excess uses of pesticides have severe effects on environment and human health that may lead to an immediate and long term effects.
Therefore it is important to identify the factors effect on excess use of pesticides which can help to overcome the intensive use of pesticides over the years in vegetable cultivation. In this context, the objectives of the study were (i) To investigate the farmers’ level of awareness in use of pesticides and (ii) To investigate the factors that cause to excess use of pesticides.
Methodology
The research was carried out in up country vegetable growing areas of Badulla and Nuwara Eliya district. Bandarawela, Welimada and Nuwara-Eliya Divisional Secretariat divisions were selected as the study area. Stratified random sampling technique was used to select 600 vegetable farmers from Nuwara-Eliya, Walimada and Bandarawela Divisional Secretariat divisions. Information were collected from farmers based on a semi structured pre-tested questionnaire. Both descriptive statistical method and binary logistic regression technique were used to analyze the data. Minitab 15 Statistical Software was used to get the output of binary logistic analysis.
