Objective To study the behaviors of pesticide using between agricultural workers in plantations and individual farmers in household farms, including self-protection measures and pesticide packages disposal, and to provide scientific evidence for making agricultural production safety policies and measures.
Methods In January 2014, six villages and fifteen large-scale plantations were selected in Yuanmou County of Yunnan Province. By simple random sampling method, 298 agricultural workers and 424 individual farmers with behaviors of pesticide using were surveyed by questionnaire interview in a face-to-face manner.
Results Of the individual farmers, 83.45% prepared and mixed pesticides by themselves or family members; while in large-scale plantations, this work was done by agricultural technicians (48.81%) or plantation owners (22.71%). For the disposal of pesticide packages and waste, 45.32% of the individual farmers dumped packages and waste in farming fields or rivers; while in the large-scale plantations, 101 surveyed agricultural workers reported that the packages and waste were collected and disposed by assigned workers. As for the self-protection measures when using pesticides, 25.25% of the agricultural workers in the large plantations and 52.76% of the individual farmers reported that they never worn masks (Z=-7.965, P<0.001); 35.35% of the agricultural workers and 87.77% of the individual farmers never worn rubber gloves (Z=-14.016, P<0.001).
Conclusion Pesticide mixing and package disposal are more likely to be managed by trained or professional workers in large-scale plantations than in household farms. Higher proportions of workers in the plantations apply self-protection measures than individual farmers. This implies that pesticide using in plantations is more reasonable and safer for both workers and environment than that in household farms.
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