How Rural Producers Use Pesticides

Abstract

The purpose of this work was, after gathering information about the use of pesticides by rural producers, to develop teaching material on environmental education, in technical language appropriate to the target audience, with the aim of providing rural producers with the knowledge necessary to improve their quality of life. To characterize the profile of the community and better understand the positioning of small farmers regarding land use and occupation, production system and land structure, information was collected from federal, state and municipal agencies. The study was carried out in the Córrego da Capituva microbasin, municipality of Macedônia, SP, whose striking characteristic is the existence of small rural properties (sites of 1 to 10 ha, representing 36%, and of 10 to 50 ha, 47%) that , basically, use family labor (69% only family labor and 22% family labor and day laborers). The production profile is 67% based on beef and dairy farming and 16% on citrus. Pesticides are used by farmers as follows: 76% use pesticide products; 82% never used personal protective equipment when preparing grout; 83% never used protective equipment when applying the products; 5% rarely observe the re-entry period in the pesticide application areas; 8% usually supply spraying equipment in waterways; 5%, in some way, frequently reuse the empty packaging of these products; 54% follow technical guidance at the time of purchase; 35% seek guidance from other people; and 11% do it their own way. In the lectures with rural producers to apply the teaching material, it became clear that the current economic model justifies the use of pesticides due to the need for productive agriculture, capable of meeting the global demand for food and guaranteeing its own economic survival. The farmer also believes that pesticides only harm the health of those who are not used to it.