Farmer awareness on the effect of pesticides on the environment and crop production in siniloan, laguna, philippines

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY ALLAIN ANJELO F CANDELARIA FARMERS’ AWARENESS ON THE EFFECTS OF PESTICIDES ON THE ENVIRONMENT AND CROP PRODUCTION IN SINILOAN, LAGUNA, PHILIPPINES BACHELOR THESIS Study Mode Major Faculty Batch : Full-time : Environmental Science and Management : International Programs Office : 2013 - 2017 Thai Nguyen, 2017 DOCUMENTATION PAGE WITH ABSTRACT Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry Degree Program Bachelor of Environmental Science and Management Student Name Allain Anjelo F Candelaria Student ID DTN1454290059 Farmer Awareness on the Effect of Pesticides on the Thesis Title Environment and Crop Production in Siniloan, Laguna, Philippines Supervisors Ms Liberata Capilos Mr Do Tuan Tung Abstract: This study aims to determine the level of awareness of farmers on the effect of pesticide on environment and crop production in Siniloan, Laguna, Philippines The study was conducted by giving survey questionnaires to 120 farmers in the vicinity of Siniloan, Laguna, Philippines The statistical tools used in the study were frequency, percentages, verbal interpretation and weighted mean Results of the study showed that 64% of the respondents are slightly aware on the effects of the pesticides on the environment and crop production Moreover, results also illustrated that it is the supervisory departments (e.g., local department of agriculture sector, municipal agriculture officer) in Siniloan, Laguna, Philippines affect and influence the respondents’ awareness through conducting trainings, seminars and free consultation regarding the effect of pesticides in environment and crop production Lastly, the respondents are not absolutely welcome to accept additional knowledge regarding the effects of pesticide in environment and crop production Keywords: Number of Pages Date of Submission Awareness, Pesticides, Environmental Effects, Farmers, Negative Effects, Handling Pesticides 34 November 2017 Supervisor's Signature i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The author would like to extend his greetings and profound gratitude to those who supported and prayed for him for the success of the study He would also like to express his grateful acknowledgement to the following who have contributed a lot to the accomplishment of the study For the God Almighty who always watch the author even if there are so many challenges that the author encountered His parents Mr Allan Candelaria and Mrs Belenda Candelaria for their moral support and dedications for him For the guidance on what he was doing as well For the well care help they have given With their intensifying encouragement to persuade him to accomplish this study Without their parental, spiritual Financial, and moral support, this work could have not been made possible; His siblings Jeruz Allen Candelaria and Julius Rafael Candelaria, CPA for their help which makes the research successful and their endless love & support for the researcher; Mrs Liberata Capilos, his adviser for being there always, when the researcher needed guidance, and committed her valuable time and effort for the completion of the study; Mr Do Tuan Tung, his supervisor mentor, for giving him additional knowledge, with those additional information based on the study’s completion, worthy indication, ii comments and most of all, for helping him in problems that the researcher encountered, with those additional information based on the study’s completion; Dr Robert C Agatep, as his statistician and his godfather as well, for the lessons and knowledge he shares with the gratitude approach, and also for the willingness to help the researcher to finish the study iii TABLE OF CONTENT PART I INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background and rationale 1.2 Objectives 1.3 Research questions and hypothesis 1.3.1 Research Questions 1.3.2 Hypothesis 1.4 Limitations PART II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE 2.1 An Overview of Pesticides 2.2 Benefits of Pesticides 2.3 Effects of Pesticides in Agriculture 2.4 Impact on Humans 2.5 Impact on Environment 12 2.5.1 Surface Water Contamination 12 2.5.2 Ground Water Contamination 13 2.5.3 Soil Contamination 14 PART III MATERIALS AND METHODS 16 3.1 Design 16 3.2 Tools and instruments 16 3.3 Sampling Design 17 3.3 Respondents 17 3.4 Time frame and locale 17 3.5 Data gathering procedures 17 3.6 Data analysis 18 iv PART IV RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 20 4.1 Age 20 4.2 Gender 21 4.3 Educational Attainment 21 4.4 Level of Awareness 22 4.5 Factors affecting the level of the respondents’ awareness 23 4.6 Level of acceptance for the additional awareness 24 PART V SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATION 26 5.1 Summary of Findings 26 5.2 Conclusion 27 5.3 Recommendations 27 REFERENCES 30 APPENDICES v LIST OF TABLES Table Statistical Tools for Interpretation of Data 18a Table Level of awareness on the effects of pesticide 19 Table Level of acceptance of the additional awareness regarding the effects of pesticide 19 Table Distribution of respondents in terms of age 20 Table Distribution of respondents in terms of gender 21 Table Distribution of respondents in terms of educational attainment 22 Table Level of Awareness on the effects of pesticide 23 Table Factors affecting the level of the respondents’ awareness 24 Table Level of acceptance of the additional awareness 25 vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CAF : Census of Agriculture and Fisheries NAP : National Action Plan PhilMech : Philippine Center for Post-harvest Development and Mechanization PSA : Philippine Statistics Authority UPLB-AMDP : University of the Philippines Los Banos (Agricultural Mechanization Development Program) WHO : World Health Organization vii PART I INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background and rationale At present, the Filipino people is currently facing numerous environmental issues which include environmental pollution, global warming, overpopulation, natural resources depletion and waste disposal (Datukon, 2016) Infrastructure developments are resulting in resource depletion and environmental destruction Modern technologies used in the engineering and manufacturing industry have a major impact on our life in past few years Due to the rapid changes in the engineering and manufacturing industry have been drastic changes in the environment In this regard, it was stated by Rinkesh (2016) that pollution hit number one in the significant current environmental issues Pollution, as defined by Merriam-Webster, is the action of polluting especially by environmental contamination with man-made waste Man-made waste pollutants can threaten human health and compromise the natural ecosystem and environment Manmade pollution is generally a byproduct of human actions such as consumption, waste disposal, industrial production, transportation and energy generation Pollution can occur in air, water, soil, and radioactive (Kwak, 2017) Asio (2010) stated that soil degradation (i.e., soil pollution) is one of the most serious ecological problems in the Philippines Asio also added that the National Action Plan (NAP) for 2004 to 2010 identified soil degradation as a major threat to food security in the country NAP reported that about 5.2 million hectares are seriously degraded resulting to 30 to 50% reduction in soil productivity Soil degradation is defined as the process which lowers the current or future capacity of the soil to produce goods or services (Asio, 2010) According to National Pesticide Information Center, soil can be degraded and the community of organisms living in the soil can be damaged by misuse or over use of pesticides Pesticides, as defined by World Health Organization (WHO), are chemical compounds that are used to kill pests, including insects, rodents, fungi and unwanted plants (weeds) Pesticides are used in agriculture to kill pests that damage crops By its very nature, pesticides are potentially toxic to other organisms, including humans, and need to be used safely and disposed of properly Pesticides present the group of chemicals that are purposely applied to the environment with aim to suppress plant and animal pests and to protect agricultural and industrial products However, the majority of pesticides is not specifically targeting the pest only and during their application they also affect the non-target plants and animals Repeated application of pesticides may lead to loss of biodiversity Many pesticides are not easily degradable, they persist in soil, leach to groundwater and surface water and contaminate wide environment Depending on their chemical properties they can enter the organism, bioaccumulate in food chains and consequently influence also human health Overall, intensive pesticide application results in several negative effects in the environment that cannot be ignored (Pesticide Action Network – Europe (August 2010) Environmental effects of pesticides An impression of recent scientific literature) Based on the foregoing, the proponent of the study wanted to determine if the farmers within Siniloan, Laguna, Philippines has enough awareness on the effects of pesticides in the environment Being able to determine their (farmers) level of awareness trainings, seminars and free consultation regarding the effect of pesticides in environment and crop production Lastly, the respondents are not absolutely welcome to accept additional knowledge regarding the effects of pesticide in environment and crop production 5.2 Conclusion After the evaluation of the findings of the study, the present study showed that among 120 respondents, 64% of farmers are slightly aware on the effect of pesticide to the environment and crop production in Siniloan, Laguna, Philippines The farmers’ awareness on the effects of pesticides on the environment and crop production in Siniloan, Laguna, Philippines is affected by their educational attainment which is 52% of them are none indicated and 39% are influenced by the supervisory department Furthermore, the farmers not accept and is not open for additional knowledge/awareness on the usage of pesticides in Siniloan, Laguna, Philippines, because of the reason that they stick to the old method rather than trying the new ones 5.3 Recommendations With the results and conclusion of this study, the proponent would like to address the following recommendations: To the farmers The proponent suggest that the farmers increase on a deeper level their current awareness the pros and cons of using pesticides, the effect on the environment and crop production, the effect on the health of the end-consumers as this will help them to reconsider whether they will continuously use pesticides in their current agricultural 27 practices Moreover, they may also increase the level of their acceptance on obtaining additional knowledge, not just in the usage of pesticide, but also other agricultural practices as well such as organic farming, using natural solutions in avoiding and minimizing pests in their crops and the help of modern technology To the supervisory departments It is advised by the proponent that the supervisory departments conduct more trainings and seminars to the farmers regarding the use of pesticides and its positive and negative effects, since based on this study, supervisory departments is the majority factor that affect the level of awareness of the farmers They may also include other trainings and seminars discussing other agricultural and farming alternatives such as organic farming Further, they may also consider extending financial assistance and capital to the farmers to invest on a safer and healthier farming practices To the students The proponent suggests that the students who are currently taking up Agricultural and Farming tertiary courses, try to prepare themselves by thinking of alternatives and greener means of crop farming in combination with their knowledge and application of modern technologies To the educators The proponent proposes to the university educators to design and implement agricultural curriculum which take into account courses that specifically discuss and address the usage, the positive and negative effects of pesticides 28 To the future proponents It is suggested that the future proponents try to widen the scope of the study by considering additional number of respondents, preferably by scoping in farmers residing in other towns near Siniloan, Laguna, Philippines such as Pangil, Pakil, Paete, Sta Maria and Mabitac, Laguna, Philippines in order to better reflect a more realistic results The study was conducted with 120 farmers in Siniloan, Laguna, Philippines resulting in a limited generalization; however, with an added number of targeted respondents, like targeting respondents by region, results can be more accurate and other factors can also arise which may be significant to the study Future proponents can also try adding other questions and factors which they think can help in assessing the study even better like total annual income gained from farming and agricultural practices of the respondents that have an effect on the level of awareness of the farmers 29 REFERENCES Alam, Z (1996) Pesticides use and handling at farm level in Bangladesh (1996) Grassroots 5: 19-25 Andreu V Pico’ Y Determination of pesticides and their degradation products in soil: critical review and comparison of methods Trends Anal Chemistry 2004;23(10– 11):772–789 AOAD (1992) The danger of pesticides and their impact on human and animal health and environmental pollution Khartoum: Arab Organization for Agricultural Development Belzer W, Evans C and Poon A (1998) Atmospheric concentrations of agricultural chemicals in the Lower Fraser Valley FRAP study report, 1998, Aquatic and Atmospheric Science Division, Environment Canada, Vancouver, BC Bertram, D “Likert Scales.” Retrieved July 18, 2016 from http://my.ilstu.edu/~eostewa/497/Likert%20topic-dane-likert.pdf Bevans HE, Lico MS and Lawrence SJ (1998) Water quality in the Las Vegas Valley area and the Carsonand 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Retrieved September 26, 2017, from https://books.google.com.ph/books?id=ZcoIAAAAQBAJ&dq=checklist definition in research&source=gbs_navlinks_s Kole RK, Bagchi MM Pesticide residues in the aquatic environment and their possible ecological hazards J Inland Fish Soc India 1995;27(2):79–89 Kole RK, Banerjee H, Bhattacharyya A Monitoring of pesticide residues in farm gate vegetable samples in west Bengal Pest Res J 2002;14(1):77–82 Le Noir JS, McConnell LL, Fellers GM, Cahill TM, Seiber JN Summertime transport of current use pesticides from California's central valley to the SierraNevada mountain range, USA Environ Toxico Chem 1999;18:2715–2722 Salaria, N (2012) Meaning of the Term- Descriptive Survey Research Method Retrieved September 26, 2017, from http://www.ijtbm.com/images/short_pdf/Apr_2012_NEERU%20SALARIA%202.pdf The Manila Times (2015) Farmers getting older, study shows Retrieved September 26, 2017, from http://www.manilatimes.net/farmers-getting-older-study-shows/192193/ Wadhwani AM, Lall IJ, editors Harmful Effects of Pesticides New Delhi: Indian Council of Agricultural Research; 1972 Report of the Special Committee of ICAR; p 44 34 APPENDICES Appendix A: Questionnaire Republic of the Philippines LAGUNA STATE POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY Siniloan (Host) Campus Siniloan, Laguna Good day! I am ALLAIN ANJELO F CANDELARIA, a student from Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry, Vietnam This survey is conducted to obtain information that will help my research on “Farmers’ Awareness on the Effect of Pesticides on the Environment and Crop Production in Siniloan, Laguna, Philippines” I Personal Profile Name (Optional): _ Address: Age: _ years old Sex: Male Civil Status: Female SigleMarriedWidowed Educational Attainment: Elementary Graduate Secondary Graduate College Graduate Others please specify _ Size of the farm: Crop: Occupation other than farming: II Write TRUE in the blank if the statement is true and FALSE if it is not true according to your belief The use of sprayer is more effective than the dust application of pesticide to the crops It is advisable to follow the recommendation on the pesticide label to get its proper blend The choice of pesticide should be appropriate to the class of the pest The use of pesticide chemicals is not harmful to the plant False scaling, stirring, and mixing of the pesticide don’t affect the plant The use of pesticide destroys the neighboring crops that are applied with Pesticides drive the pests that I want to drive away Pesticides kill the pests that I want to kill Butachlor is a classification of a pesticide which can damage plants that are unnecessary 10 Glyphosate is a classification of a pesticide which destroys all crops 11 I use protective gears like masks, long and thick clothes whenever I put on pesticides 12 Improper use of pesticides harms crops 13 The size of the fruit that applied pesticides with is the same with the fruit that doesn’t have pesticides 14 The fruit of the crop is sweeter than the crops without pesticides 15 The fruit of the crop is fleshier than the crops without pesticides 16 The fruit of the crop is juicier than the crops without pesticides 17 The skin of crops is better than the crops without pesticides 18 The fruit of the crops sells better because of the good quality than the crops without pesticides 19 The fruit of the crops that have pesticides applied on and crops that don’t have pesticides have the same fruit quality 20 The fruit of the crops that applied with organic pesticides is the same with the crops that applied with in-organic pesticides 21 Pesticides are harmful to the person who is applying 22 People and children who inhale pesticides can harm their health conditions 23 No harm can be caused if people accidentally eat pesticides 24 Children may be able to formulate a formula to learn it 25 Children can play the pesticides 26 Pesticides are harmful because of the chemical it carries 27 Pesticides reduce soil nutrients that crops needs 28 The pesticides contaminate different bodies of water 29 It is good for the human health of the person to eat fruit from the plant with organic pesticides 30 It is good for the human health of the person to eat fruit from the plant with in-organic pesticides 31 It causes allergy to the people who eats pesticides residue 32 There is no sign of destruction of the fruit of my crops compared to the plant without pesticides 33 Pesticide use is harmful to the farmers who apply it 34 Pesticide use directly affects the growth of crops _35 Pesticide use has affected the size of the fruit of my crops _36 Pesticide use has affected the production of my crops _37 Pesticides cause skin itchiness to the people who use it _38 Pesticides cause headaches to the people who use it _39 Pesticides cause cough to the people who use it _40 Pesticides cause dry throat to the people who use it _41 Pesticides cause heavy breathing to the people who use it _42 Pesticides cause dizziness to the people who use it _43 Pesticides cause vomiting to the people who use it _44 Pesticides cause itchiness of the eyes to the people who use it _45 Pesticides cause excessive sweating to the people who use it III Factors Affecting the Level of Awareness Where did you learn about the use of pesticides? Local store Departments in charge Neighbor Guess Others please specify To whom did you learn about the use of pesticides? Neighbor Fellow farmer Guess Others please specify Where you get your pesticides? Local store Departments in charge Neighbor Guess Others please specify To whom did you get your pesticides? Local store Neighbor Fellow farmer Guess Others please specify Where did you find the information that pesticides affect the environment? Local store Departments in charge Neighbor Fellow farmer Guess Others please specify To whom did you find the information that pesticides affect the environment? Local store Neighbor Fellow farmer Guess Others please specify IV Determining the Level of Acceptance to Additional Knowledge Regarding Pesticides Number Word Explanation Highly Agree Agree Moderate Disagree Highly Disagree Number 2 1 I have the knowledge in organic farming I’m willing to organic farming The use of organic pesticides is better than inorganic pesticides at all times My knowledge of pesticides and their effects increases whenever I attend meetings and seminars about farming I have the knowledge of the different types of pesticides and their uses Number Word Explanation Always Often Moderate Sometimes Never Number I attend meetings, seminars and other gatherings about pesticides I use pesticides in my crops I use in-organic pesticides in my crops I follow the recommendation that my source gives me about the information regarding pesticides Whenever I use pesticides, the soil is being polluted Thank you very much! Appendix B: Photos of interviewing the farmers in their houses and fields ... and crop production in Siniloan, Laguna, Philippines? -What are the factors affecting the level of farmers’ awareness on the effects of pesticides on the environment and crop production in Siniloan,. .. and crop production in Siniloan, Laguna, Philippines The farmers’ awareness on the effects of pesticides on the environment and crop production in Siniloan, Laguna, Philippines is affected by their... determine the level of awareness of farmers on the effect of pesticide on environment and crop production in Siniloan, Laguna, Philippines The study was conducted by giving survey questionnaires