Assessing farmers' knowledge of Moghan plain about the consequences of chemical pesticides for community health, the environment, and food security

Farmers in agricultural activities deal with various forms of chemical pesticides and thus their knowledge level can have a positive or negative impact on the food health of a community and the environment. Understanding their knowledge about the consequences of poisoning will provide an effective extension for promoting environmentally friendly methods in farms and maintaining food security. Hence, the aim of this study was to assess the farmers' knowledge of Moghan plain about the consequences of chemical pesticides use for community health, the environment and food security in 2017.

The method of this study is descriptive and survey. The statistical population consisted of all farmers (water cultivation) in the Moghan plain. The sample size of 400 was determined by multi-stage sampling method and using Kerjesi and Morgan table (1970). The study tool was a questionnaire whose validity was confirmed by a panel of experts and its reliability was confirmed by Cronbach's alpha coefficient.

The findings showed that the majority of the farmers had relatively poor knowledge about the consequences of using chemical pesticides. The results of structural equation modeling (using Lisrel software) showed that the use of information resources, in total, predicted 24% of variance of farmers' knowledge about the consequences of chemical pesticides.

Given that more favorable safety behavior and cultivation of more healthy crops are based on the farmers' knowledge about the use and consequences of chemical pesticides, hence, the attention of authorities and planners for conducting various workshops in line with farmers' perceptions about the use of knowledge and the consequences chemical pesticides are needed.