Sự ưa thích rủi ro, nhận thức, hành vi sử dụng thuốc bảo vệ thực vật và sức khỏe của người trồng lúa ở đồng bằng sông cửu long TT TIENG ANH

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAING UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HCMC SU THI THU HANG RISK PREFERENCE, PERCEPTION, BEHAVIOR OF PESTICIDES AND HEALTH OF RICE FARMERS IN THE MEKONG DELTA PH.D DISSERTATION EXECUTIVE SUMMARY HO CHI MINH CITY - 2021 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAING UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HCMC SU THI THU HANG RISK PREFERENCE, PERCEPTION, BEHAVIOR OF PESTICIDES AND HEALTH OF RICE FARMERS IN THE MEKONG DELTA MAJOR : DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS CODE : 9310105 PH.D DISSERTATION EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Supervisors: Assoc Prof Dr TRAN TIEN KHAI Dr LE THANH LOAN The work was completed at: University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City Supervisors: Assoc Prof Dr TRAN TIEN KHAI Dr LE THANH LOAN Reviewer 1:……………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………… Reviewer 2:……………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………… Reviewer 3:……………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………… The dissertation will be defended in front of the Dissertation Evaluation Council at the University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City At…… O’clock……Day…….Month…….Year The dissertation can also be found at: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Research background The Mekong River Delta is the largest granary in Vietnam In 2018, the cultivated ares of the Mekong River Delta was 4,185 million hectares, accounting for 54.32% of the total rice area of the country The total of rice output of the Makong River Delta was 24,441.9 thousand tons in 2018, making up 55.6% of the national output (GSO, 2018) Although the rice cultivated area has been decreasing over recent years, the proportion of the rice production in the Mekong River Delta still accounts for more than 55% of the total rice production of the total national output In 2017, the rice export of the Mekong River Delta reached to 5.5 million tons, with the turnover of $2.40 billion, accounting for 93% of the total national rice export turnover (GSO, 2018) The above facts confirm the position and importance of the Mekong River Delta in the Vietnam’s rice production Therefore, studying about the rice cultivation in the Mekong River Delta not only has the theoretical mean but also contribute to the practical policy implementation As other regions across the country, the pesticides are widely used by farmers in the Mekong River Dela However, the use of pesticides has many the shortcomings Despite of the awareness of the harmful effect of pesticides, the farmers are less likely to spend the protective equipment as spraying or using pesticide They only wear the facial marks and hats They feel uncomfortable when they are wearing the protective gears in the local climatic condition which, in turn, can cause their health problems (Huynh Viet Khai, 2014) Regarding to the toxicity of the pesticides, the local farmers often use types that is categorized in the toxicity type II and III (is classified by the WHO) The pesticides are not also appropriately used in terms of frequency, duration, dosage and does not guarantee the safety in storage Additionally, the disposal of solid and liquid wastes from usage process are not often properly managed in the fields and the storages This not only affects the health of local people who particularly directly used the pesticides but also affects the living environment and other beneficial flora and fauna (Phan Van Toan, 2013) 1.2 Empirical studies The empirical studies both in the word and in Vietnam show that the risk aversion can affect people’s decision, even in the agricultural sector The risk preference affects the farmer’s decision in selecting the cultivars (Nguyen Thanh Phu, 2016; Liu 2013), the amount of fertilizers used ( Khor et al., 2018) or the dosage of pesticides (Liu and Huang, 2013) Regarding to the amount of pesticides used, the risk aversers tend to use more pesticides They believe that if the pesticides were not used, they would lose their crops which affects their productivity and reduce their income (Liu and Huang, 2013) Therefore, if we are aware of the farmer’s risk preferences, we can explain their behaviour in using pesticides This is the important factor in studying farmer’s behavior which allows the policy makers to understand why the farmers tend to use more the amount of pesticide than the instructed dosage However, the existing evidence is mainly conducted in other countries rather than in Vietnam There are not many studies on the effect of risk preference on pesticides use in Vietnam Zhang et al (2016) argued farmer’s perception of health risks affects their pesticide using behavior Huynh Viet Khai (2014), jallow et al 92017), Migheli (2017) also showed that understanding of risks and the knowledge of farmers in using pesticides affect the amount of pesticide used Therefore, studying about farmer’s perception of risk in using pesticides plays an important role in explaining the farmer’s behavior in using pesticides Moreover, we can influence the farmer’s perception to change their behaviour which help the farmer using the pesticides reasonably and scientificly The risk preference is a personal characters which we can not intervene to change it Neverthless, the aware of the risk preference allows us to influence and change the farmers’ perception in different ways The change in the aware of risk and personal attitude to the risk preference will affect and change their behavior in the amount of pesticides used Motivated by these above reasons, it is necessary and important to study about the risk preferences and risk perception of the farmers in using pesticides and the impact of these two factors on the pesticides usage The findings from this study is the scientific base to have the appropriate solutions to mitigate the downside effects of the unreasonable and unsafe pesticide using in the Mekong River Delta The pesticides is harmful to the local environment and people’s health The pesticide toxicity can immediately affect after exposuring or taking a while after exposuring The level of harm to people’ health depends on the pesticide’s toxicity Some types of pesticides that is even attached in a small amount can seriously cause the health issues Once people are infected pesticides, these chemicals not only affect the respiratory system, nervous system, skin surface but also the circulatory system People who directly spray pesticides are most susceptible to their health problems due to the inhalation of dispersed pesticides or skin surface adhesions (Phan Bich Ngan and Dinh Xuan Thang, 2006) People who are infected by pesticides have the symptoms such as headaches, nausea and skin issues, the effects on the nervous system, liver and kidneys (Qiao et al, 20120 Pesticide exposure is closely related to the cancers such as lung cancer, prostate cancer, rectal cancer, pancreatic cancer (Alavanja and Bonner, 2012) Therefore, the harmful effects of the pesticides on people who are either directly exposure or indirectly exposure to the pesticides, the environment, ecosystem are very huge It is necessary to evaluate the impact of the pesticide on people’s health which helps the farmers using the pesticides appropriately, avoiding overuse and unnecessary use 1.3 Research objectives and research questions General objectives The general objective of this study aims to measure and analyse the impact of farmer’s risk preferences, risk perceptions as using pesticides The impact of the pesticides usage on farmer’s health From these, the recommendations for farmers and the policy makers in managing and using the pesticides are proposed Specific objectives Measuring the risk preferences, farmer’s risk perceptions in using pesticides Evaluate the impact of risk preferences, risk perceptions in using pesticides on the amount of pesticides used Measuring and evaluating the impact of the amount of pesticides used on the health costs of farmers who exposed to pesticides in the Mekong River Delta Research Questions 1) How is the risk preferences of farmers in the Mekong River Delta? 2) How is they aware of the risks in using the pesticides? 3) In what extent the risk preferences and risk perception of farmers affect the amount of pesticides used? 4) How does the amount of pesticides used affect the health cost of farmers who exposed to the pesticides? 1.4 Object and scope of the study The objects of this study is the use of pesticides of the farmers in the Mekong River Delta The respondents are the farmer households who have planted rices for three years up to the interview date Scope of the study A study is conducted in three provinces: An Giang, Kien Giang and Vinh Long in three the planting seasons in 2018-2019 The total of observations is 238 observations (An Giang 92, Kien Giang 71 and Vinh Long 75) THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK Protective solutions The Expected Utility theory is used to explain and calculate the coefficient of risk aversion among the farmer households The farmer behavior theory shows how the farmers decide the types of inputs approach and what factors influencingIllness the cost amount of the pesticides used Perception behavior theory Moreover, the Cognitive Behavior Theory is employed to explain Peasant behavior theory how the perceptions affect the behavior of using pesticides among the farmers Finally, the health production function is used to model the impact of pesticides on the health costs of the farmers objectives objectives objectives METHODOLOGY 3.1 Analytical framework of the study Behavior of pesticides used Expected utility theory Ways of using Risk preferences pesticides of the farmers Farmer’s risk perception in using pesticides Amount of p 10 3.2 Measuring the risk preferences The lottery game is designed with 10 different scenarios and two different options which is similar to Holt and Laury(2002) Table 3.1 Outcomes in the lottery game Option A No Option B E(A) Gain Gain VND35.000 VND44.000 Picked Picked up up number 1-9 Picked up number 10 Picked up number 1-8 Picked up number 9,10 Picked up number 1-7 Picked up number 8-10 Picked up number 1-6 Picked up number 7-10 Picked up number 1-5 Picked up number 6-10 Picked up number 1-4 Picked up number 5-10 Picked up number 1-3 Picked up number 4-10 Picked up number 1,2 Picked up number 3-10 Picked up number number 2-10 Picked up number 1-10 (VND1000) 35,9 36,8 37,7 38,6 39,5 40,4 41,3 42,2 43,1 44 Gain E(B) Gain VND2.000 VND85.000 Picked up Picked up number 1-9 Picked up number 10 Picked up number 1-8 Picked up number 9,10 Picked up number 1-7 Picked up number 8-10 Picked up number 1-6 Picked up number 7-10 Picked up number 1-5 Picked up number 6-10 Picked up number 1-4 Picked up number 5-10 Picked up number 1-3 Picked up number 4-10 Picked up number 1,2 Picked up number 3-10 Picked up number number 2-10 Picked up number 1-10 (VND1000) 10,3 18,6 26,9 35,2 43,5 51,8 60,1 68,4 76,7 85 Source: Author’s design based on Khor et al (2018), Holt and Laury (2002) 29 Among these types of pesticide, the diseased medicine is the most common one among the farmer households The amount of the deseased medicine is used at the highest level in the Winter-Spring season, with the average at 1,176 kg a.i/ha, accounting for 31.03% of the total amount of pesticides used in this season The snail control bait is the second common types used by the farmers, at 817 gam a.i/ha in Summer-Fall season, 800 gam a.i/ha in Winter-Spring and 669 gam a.i in Fall-Winter In term of the toxicity, the amount of pesticides is used in three different seasons that is shown in table 4.13 Table 4.13 The category of the amount of pesticides used by the toxicity level categorized by WHO Unit: gam a.i/ha Toxicity level I Summer- Winter-Spring Fall-Winter Fall 2019 2018-2019 2018 1 II 578 572 551 III 904 930 911 IV 1.498 1.519 1.360 90 84 100 3.071 3.106 2.923 Unknown Tổng Source: Author’s summary from the survey The amount of the extremely toxic pesticides that is classified in the level I is less likely used among the farmer households 30 (around gam/a.i/ha) The amount of pesticides that is categorized in the level IV is the most common which accounted for almost 60% of the total pesticides used The farmers also more likely to use the pesticides that is categorized in level III- a relatively toxic level for human health Regarding to the behaviour of using pesticides, the result of survey also shows that nearly 18% of farmer household aggree that they overused the pesticides in farming Moreover, if the amount of the pesticides mixed to spray remains after sprying, they will be back and spray until finishing their mixed chemicals This, in turn, makes the amount of pesticides used be higher than the necessry level On the other hand, some of households throw away their used pesticide packages in the files, canels or even sell them to the scrap dealers RESEARCH RESULTS 5.1 Results of measuring the risk preference Table 5.3 presents the average values of the risk preferences in provinces It is shown that the highest mean is found in An Gian, at 0.33 which is followed by Kien Giang at 0.21 and Vinh Long stands at the lowest position at 0.05 The result from the F-test of Oneway ANOVA shows that these values are statistically significant at 10% This implies that there is the differences in the risk preferences between provinces and it is statistically significant at 10% Table 5.3 Average value of the risk preference in provinces Province Mean An Giang 0.33 Kien Giang 0.21 Vinh Long 0.05 31 Significance level 10% Source: Author’s summary from the survey 5.2 Result of measuring the risk perception Table 5.8 The mean of score of the risk perception in using pesticides Province Overal average score An Giang Kien Giang Vinh Long Significance level Mean 8.94 8.62 9.23 9.07 5% Source: Author’s summary from the survey The result from measuring the risk perception shows that most of farmer households are well aware of the impact of the pesticides on people who exposed to the pesticides and the environment The overal average score is realtaively high, at 8.94 In which, Kien Giang has the highest score at 9.23, followed by Vinh Long and An Giang 5.3 Result of the regression of the impact of risk preference and risk perception in using pesticides on the amount of pesticides used Result of regression is shown in the Table 5.10: Table 5.10 Result of the OLS regression Estimation Result Variables Risk preference Symbol Rp Coefficient 0,442*** Standard error (0,025) Standardized β 0,565 32 Risk perception in KU using pesticides Price of pesticide Pp Training Tr participation -0,120*** (0,041) -0,250 -0.319*** (0,066) -0,276 0,017 (0,039) 0,011 Education level Edu -0,011* (0,006) -0,049 Experience Yup -0.004** (0,002) -0.064 An Giang 0,090* (0,047) 0,060 Kien giang 0,060 (0,046) 0,037 Source: Result from regression in Stata 14 Note: N= 238, * significant at 10% (p