Analysis in Terms of Environmental Awareness of Farmers’ Decisions and Attitudes: Reducing Pesticide Use and Risks

Ismail Bulent Gurbuz ()
Additional contact information
Ismail Bulent Gurbuz: Department of Agricultural Economics, Faculty of Agriculture, Bursa Uludag University, Nilüfer 16059, Türkiye

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 11, 1-18

Abstract: Pesticide residues are a significant problem affecting the quality and safety of agricultural products in Turkey. This study aims to investigate farmers’ risk perception regarding pesticide residues, including the primary factors that influence their behavior from the farmers’ perspective. In addition, the main characteristics of pesticide residues encountered in the production of agricultural products against the current policy background is investigated to provide decision support to the Turkish government for improving the safe production of agricultural products. This paper uses a binary logistic model to analyze farmers’ perceptions of pesticide residues using a cross-sectional dataset of 323 vegetable growers in Bursa, Turkey. Farmer characteristics and pesticide application behavior were more effective in reducing residual risk perceptions than farm characteristics. The effects of membership in a cooperative, average amount of pesticide used, location where the pesticide was purchased, application timing, and adherence to last spraying and harvest timing on the perception of residues were the largest. Farmers receive helpful but limited information from pesticide distributors. However, the primary source of information is not the advisors, which is why these grievances exist. The study results show that policymakers should support cooperatives, expand pesticide training, and make public extension services more effective and that pesticide dealers should conduct more frequent inspections.

Keywords: sustainable agriculture; pesticide residue; residue perceptions; agricultural pollution; attitudes; behaviors; knowledge (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/11/4323/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/11/4323/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:11:p:4323-:d:1398496

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().