The Most Important Predictors of Farmers Health Risk towards Pesticides Consumption (The Case of Potato Growers of Ardabil Province)

Recently, slow adoption of chemical pesticides alternatives and the increasing of pests has greatly increased the health risk potential in pesticides consumption among farmers. Therefore, this descriptive survey study aimed to determine the most important predictors of health risk in pesticides consumption among potato growers in Ardabil province, Iran. A sample of 370 potato growers were chosen among Ardabil province potato growers (N= 4876), according to the table of Bartlett et al. using multi-stage sampling method. The results revealed that farmers overused in different chemical pesticides and the most farmers (35.7%) were at a high level of health risk. Chlorpyrifos and Trifluralin had the highest level of pesticides overuse, while Chlorpyrifos and Metribuzin were the most hazardous pesticides for health risk. According to the decision tree model and calculation of the composite index, farm size, social norm, perceived chemical pesticides risk and history of participation in training courses, were the most important predictors of health risk index, respectively. Training, technical and financial support for small-scale farmers to replace hazardous chemical pesticides; receiving continuous educational feedback from farmers' perception of pesticide overuse hazard and improving social norms with the local leaders’ support and skilled farmers can reduce the health risk of farmers in chemical pesticides consumption.