Effectiveness Of Pesticide Labels As A Communication Tool For Smallholder Farmers On Pesticides Handling

This study was conducted in northern Tanzania to assess the effectiveness of pesticide labels in communicating useful information to horticultural farmers. A total of 200 respondents were obtained through simple random selection. Data were collected through personal and face-to-face interview using structured interview schedule observation and focus group discussion. Simple descriptive statistics and cross tabulation were used in the analysis. The study revealed that 79.6 of farmers interviewed had not learned anything from the labels. With regard to the main source of information on pesticides use 66.7 of the farmers get information from pesticides retailers. Misinterpretation of symbols and pictograms was realized among the farmers. It was revealed that 60 of the farmers cannot interpret correctly the warning symbols and pictograms. The study also revealed that 76.3 of the farmers are aware that pesticide labels contain useful information on safe use of pesticides and 76.1 of all farmers interviewed read pesticides labels before using pesticides. Even when farmers read instructions most do not understand the instructions provided on pesticide labels the main reasons reported include the use of foreign language 53.3 too technical language 51.7 unclear information 40 use of uncommon Swahili words 26.7 while 35.5 said following information on the label do not give good results. Other factors influencing the use of information on pesticide labels were found to be farmers perception on pesticide labels lacking sensitization on label use and reading habit. The study concluded that pesticide labels do not communicate fully the intended information on pesticide use. Pesticide labels need to be simplified and capacity building on symbols colour codes pictograms safety precautions health and environmental impacts of pesticides use is highly required to pesticide users.