Small-scale vegetable producers’ perception of pests and pesticide uses in East Shewa zone, Ethiopia

Abstract

Vegetable growers’ knowledge of pest and their control method was assessed in 2014 in East Shewa zone, Ethiopia. Vegetable growers were well aware of key pests of vegetables, although some of them did not consider pests as constraint to vegetable production. All respondents scouted their vegetables for pests and used presence or absence of pest as criterion for spraying. About 76% of the respondents read pesticide label before buying pesticides, while the rest 24% of the respondents did not read pesticide labels. All vegetable growers sprayed insecticide, whereas fungicides and herbicides were applied by 90% and 7% of the respondents, respectively. About 72% of the respondents washed their sprayer after each application day and discharged the washings onto the soil. Moreover, the majority (62%) of the respondents threw empty pesticide containers around the field. Also, it was found that 71% of the respondents did not use personal protective equipment (PPE) while spraying pesticides, but a few used one or two types of PPE. More than half of the respondents sprayed pesticides on mature crops and sold the produce within three to five days.