Farmers' Perception, Knowledge and Pesticide Usage Practices : A Case Study of Tomato Production in Inlay Lake, Myanmar

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INTRODUCTIONPest and disease infestations are common occur-rences in agricultural production. Productivity of crops grown for human consumption is at risk due to the inci-dence of pests, especially weeds, pathogens and animal pests. Crop losses due to these harmful organisms can be substantial and may be prevented, or reduced, by crop protection measures (Oerket, 2005). The use of synthetic pesticides in agriculture is the most familiar way to minimize potential crop yield loss due to pest. Although uses of chemical inputs like pesticides make an increase in agricultural production and productivity, they produce a lot of externalities like the negative effects of human health and the ecosystem. These prob -lems can arise from misuse of the pesticides or over–reliance on them, particularly if the users are not aware of these potential problems. (William and Ntow, 2006). Adequate knowledge on how farmers perceive pests, their attitude, and practices to crop protection problems are required to implement successful pest control pro-grams (Ajayia, 2000).Inlay is famous for producing tomato in floating gar -dens in Myanmar. The primary income of the native Intha people is mainly derived from tomato production, one of the most important cash vegetable crops, com-prising two third of the regions’ agriculture. Unlike the past time, almost all farmers used to apply natural ferti -lizers or no pesticides, now chemical fertilizers and a lot of pesticides are used in the agricultural farming to increase yield and prevent from pests and diseases. In addition, since prolonged monoculture system and weather condition favoring pest and disease in Inlay Lake, tomato floating islands have been severely attacked by fungal diseases resulting in high yield losses during 1994 and 1995. It becomes an unavoidable for the farm-ers in Inlay Lake to use chemical pesticides for crop protection (Lwin, 2006).The amount of farm pesticide utility has increased rapidly in recent years. Excessive use of pesticides aim -ing to control tomato plant insect, pests and diseases, as well as fertilizer and other chemical have become one of the major factors that pollutes and degrades the water quality. It has also detrimental effects on aquatic biota of the lake (Asian–Maff–Japan Project, 2006). Steve and Myint (2001) also concluded that current pes -ticide usage for tomato cultivation must be changed to protect the health of the residents in Inlay Lake. A clear understanding of farmer's knowledge, attitudes and practices of pesticide use is the first step for under-standing the reasons why farmers overuse pesticides for their crop production. Therefore, the research was designed to study farmers’ knowledge and perception on pesticide, pest and pest management and their prac-tices on pesticide use. It also attempted to find out the factors affecting the amount of pesticides used by tomato farmers in Inlay Lake.MATERIALS AND METHODS