Knowledge and Practices of Standard use of Chemical Pesticides and Hazardous Exposure Among Farmers in the Nyiragongo Health Zone, North Kivu, DRC

The Pesticides are mainly used in agriculture According to the FAO, 4,600,000 tonnes of pesticides are sprayed into the environment each year, or 146 kg of pesticides per second. Every year, 3 million people are poisoned by pesticides worldwide. Developing countries represent a quarter of the use of pesticides in the world, but record 99% of deaths caused by these same pesticides. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) recommends good management practices pesticides that can minimize potential health risks for farmers and other users in public hygiene. However, in the Nyiragongo health zone, in North Kivu, thousands of farmers are victims of respiratory poisoning caused by chemical pesticides. The objective of this study, therefore, was to examine the knowledge and practices of standard use of chemical pesticides and hazardous exposure among farmers in the Nyiragongo health zone in North Kivu, DRC. The study was guided by the theory of planned behavior. The study used a retrospective matched case-control design targeting 183,988 farmers in the Nyiragongo health zone from which a sample of 302 farmers selected using. Data was collected using a questionnaire, and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The study established that knowledge and practices on standards were significantly associated with harmful exposure to chemical pesticides among farmers in the Nyiragongo health zone. The study therefore recommends the development of robust regulatory frameworks that will enable policy actors to carry out urgent multidimensional interventions, such as raising awareness and training policy implementers and farmers on chemical pesticides.