RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Attainment of safety during pesticide spraying relies on the farmer's knowledge of pesticide use, attitude and sense of safety. However, such investigations are insufficient in the current study area. METHODS: The study is based on a primary survey of 384 orchardists about the myriad of aspects affecting the use of pesticides and their subsequent effects. RESULTS: The study revealed that knowledge, attitude, and perception had a weighted average index (WAI) and a standard deviation (SD) of 2.85 ± 1.17, 3.55 ± 1.34, and 3.81 ± 0.98 correspondingly. The findings reflect the farmers have a low to moderate level of knowledge, a moderate attitude toward pesticides, and a favourable perception on their utilization. Thus, for farmer personal protective equipment (PPE) use, it scored 2.77 ± 0.90 on the WAI scale, indicating that most farmers use PPEs 'rarely to occasionally' and that none use full protective gear. Furthermore, attitude and PPE usage exhibited a negative relationship with age, as younger people use PPE more than older ones. The findings were consistent for both farming experience and PPE usage. Moreover, there exists a positive association between age with perception and farming experience, knowledge with perception and PPE use, and attitude with perception. CONCLUSIONS: The coefficient of determination (R2) shows that 67.2% of the variability in farmers' PPE use was attributed to factors including knowledge, attitude, perception, and education. A favorable behavioral shift in pesticide usage may be achieved by enhancing farmers' knowledge, attitudes and perceptions, and adequate PPE usage.