An analysis of pesticide use for rice pest management in Bangladesh 【Article】

The so-called Green Revolution package was introduced into Bangladesh agriculture system in mid1960s. It promised to increase production of cereal crops, particularly rice by the introduction of HYVseeds, application of chemical fertilizer and pesticide, and irrigation. HYVs rice has contributed signifi-cantly to the progress towards the food self sufficiency in Bangladesh on the contrary increased to theenvironmental degradation due to the intensive use of agrochemical and other modern technology. Theuse of pesticide has been increased 400(nil)er acre and its cost increased 600 139323592uring the last couple ofdecades. Between 1985 and 1990 the sales of pesticide became double. At present, 84 pesticides activeingredients belonging to 242 trade names have been registered in Bangladesh. Out of the total pesticideuse, over 80 0x0p+0re used in rice fields. The rapid increase of pesticide use is causing detrimental effect onenvironment and health of farm workers and consumers. Pesticides are contaminating ground and sur-face water, which is causing depletion of inland fishing resources and ecosystem. Therefore, the presentstudy evaluates the level of farmers' pesticide use practiced to rice pest control, their knowledge and per-ception of the impact of pesticides on environment. A questionnaire survey has been conducted to col-lect the data from the farmers. Data have been collected from 86 rice farmers of Bangladesh. The studyrevealed that the respondent farmers used mostly insecticides at the rate of 1 to 10 kg active ingredientsper hectare of cropland and the time of application varied from 1 to 4 sprays per crops. The richer farm-ers used pesticide more frequently as compared to small and medium farmers. But most of the pesticidesbelong to extremely and highly hazardous category as classified by WHO..