Extent of Adoption and Knowledge on Pesticide Use in Vegetable Production in Narsingdi District, Bangladesh

Farmers use various pesticides indiscriminately in their vegetable fields throughout the cropping seasons in Bangladesh. The present study therefore, examined farmers’ extent of adoption and knowledge on pesticide use in vegetable production. The study was conducted in four villages of Narsingdi district, Bangladesh, where 110 vegetable farmers were selected as sample following disproportionate random sampling technique. Interview schedule was used for collection of data. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used in the analysis. Results revealed that most of the respondents were 35 years above, literate, had less than seven family members, small farm size (0.02-1.01 ha), moderate contact with information sources (80.9%), low annual income (66.4%) and received training (64.54 %) on pesticide use. Brinjal and cucurbits had the highest pesticide use among the vegetables, while the mostly used pesticides were Topten 1.8 EC, Actara insecticide and Thiovit fungicide. The extent of pesticide adoption was high (91.0%) and all (100.0%) of the respondents had low to moderate knowledge on pesticide use. Contact with information sources (r = 0.32) showed significant relationship with knowledge on pesticide use. Hence, government should strengthen information and regulations in order to raise awareness on safe use of pesticide.