From the Farmers’ Perspective: Pesticide Use and Pest Control

Abstract

Pests contribute to shortages of food in several ways. They destroy our food and attack us personally. Combined arthropod, disease and weed pests contribute to malnourishment and death to nearly two thirds or more than 66 % of the total world population of 7.2 billion people. Approximately 40 % of all the world's food production is lost or destroyed by insects, diseases, and weeds. This loss occurs despite the application of the nearly 3 million tons of pesticides applied to our crops annually. Once the food is harvested an additional 20 % of our food is destroyed; in addition to pests, pesticides cause human deaths and damage our environment. Consider there are about 3 million human pesticide poisonings worldwide, with an estimated 220,000 deaths each year. The widespread use of pesticides is responsible for bird and fish deaths, destruction of many beneficial natural enemies, pesticide residues on and in foodstuffs, loss of vital plant pollinators, ground and surface water contamination, selection for resistance in pests to pesticides, and other environmental problems. Pesticides can be reduced to zero even in the heavily treated crops in the United States-corn and soybeans. A 22-year long experiment carried out in Pennsylvania (see Chap. 6-this volume) demonstrates this. More research is needed to reduce pesticide use while reducing the negative environmental side-effects of pest control. The contributors to this book recognize the value of pesticides for pest control and recognize the negative impacts pesticides have on environmental quality and human health. In many instances, they suggest techniques that can be employed to reduce pesticide use while maintaining crop yields. Reducing pesticide use 50 % or more while improving pest control economics, public health, and the environment is possible. In fact, successful programs using various techniques in countries like Sweden and Indonesia have reduced pesticide use by close to two-thirds. Clearly we can do better to improve pest control and protect the environment and human health.

Hematological Abnormality, Oxidative Stress, and Genotoxicity Induction in the Greenhouse Pesticide Sprayers; Investigating the Role of NQO1 Gene Polymorphism

“…Jiroft city is located in the south-eastern Kerman province and is the hub of greenhouse cultivation in Iran. The estimated amount and overall frequency of pesticide use in Jiroft is much more than is needed [ 6 ].…”

Pesticide use in Vietnamese vegetable production: a 10-year study

“…However, many developing countries have not been successful in reducing pesticide use in agriculture, largely because they have limited state capacities and capabilities for developing and enforcing adequate policies on restricting pesticide distribution and use, as well as an inadequate understanding of farming practices related to pesticide use. This has resulted in improper and ineffective government approaches to addressing pesticide use at farm level, for instance in India, Iran, and Colombia (Hashemi, Peshin, & Feola, 2014), Ethiopia (Mengistie, Mol, Oosterveer, & Simane, 2015), Thailand (Panuwet et al, 2012), Bangladesh (Rahman, 2013), Sri Lanka (Jayasinghe & Silva, 2003), and Caribbean countries (Pereira, Boysielal, & Chang, 2007).…”

Social Context Influence on Urban Gardener Perceptions of Pests and Management Practices

“…In rural agriculture, farmers' perception of crop risk and subsequent crop management decisions depends of a variety of factors including personal (e.g., socioeconomic, experience, social network connections) and external factors (e.g., political conditions, geographic setting), as well as access to extension services (Meijer et al, 2015). Farmers' decisions on pesticide use, for example, depend on perceived health and economic risks as well as trade-offs between crop protection and other objectives (Hashemi et al, 2014). An important factor that most likely drives pest perceptions and pest control practices is the ultimate goal of growing crops.…”