Conditions d’utilisation et risques lies aux pesticides chez les agriculteurs de la wilaya de m’sila

Abstract

Throughout history, farmers have experienced problems threatening their agricultural crops, and they have countered this by using pesticides of various kinds. The objective of the present survey is to document the level of knowledge, conditions and practices of pesticide use as well as to identify the different side effects associated with this use. This is a cross-sectional study of descriptive type, conducted among 119 farmers who use pesticides in the wilaya of M'SILA during the period from January 1, 2022 to June 23, 2022. These participants had an age between 18 and 80 years with an average of 41.65 years. The sex ratio was 96.6% male and 3.4% female. The participants lived in different regions of the wilaya of M'SILA. 28.6% of the participants have a university level, 26.1% have a primary level, 21% have an intermediate level, 18.5% have a secondary level and 5.9% have little or no education. The vast majority of farmers (93.3%) believe that pesticides can enter the body through the skin and respiratory tract (81.5%), the eye (70.5%) and the digestive tract (49.6%). The majority of the farmers surveyed (95%) admit to the health risks of pesticides. They showed the following clinical profile (after the use of pesticides): Headache (1.7%), dizziness (2.5%), asthenia (0.8%), diarrhea (2.5%), skin rash (5.9%), Itching irritation (5%), coughing (1.7%), chest pain and wheezing (0.8%), throat irritation (4.2%), watery eyes (1.7%), visual disturbances (5%) and Eye/face burn (9.2%). The personal protective equipment most used by the participants were gloves (81.5%), boots (67.2%) and masks (58.8%). In effect, our study allowed us to study the profile of risks related to the use of pesticides, in order to reduce these risks, protective equipment during the use of pesticides is essential.