FARMERS PERCEPTION OF PESTICIDES APPLICATION AND ITS IMPACT ON THE SUSTAINABLE ENVIRONMENT

The study was conducted to determine the farmers perception about the impact of using pesticides on environmental pollution of the selected 90 farmers of Asulia and Maloncho villages under Dhamrai upazilla of Dhaka district and Kumargata union under Muktagacha Upazilla of Mymensingh district. The findings revealed that 46.6% farmers are illiterate while about 65.5% of the farmers had small farms and the highest proportion (61.1%) of the farmers fall in the regularly direct participation in farming and 51.1% of the farmers falls in low knowledge. Majority (66.7%) of the farmers had low information sources used and 61.1% of the respondents takes no training on safe handling and applying pesticides. The highest proportion (53.4%) of the respondents had low environmental pollution awareness. The highest portion of (40.0%) of respondents used in insecticide, herbicide and fungicide while the highest proportion (61.1%) of the respondents concerned about water pollution. Most of the operators (32.2%) used two protective cloths such as long sleeve shirt and "gamcha", highest portion 27.7% diseases of difficulty breathing, fever, headache and nausea during application. Accidental ingestion (60% of all causes) resulted from drinking water stored in empty containers for drinking water in the present study.