Pesticides usage pattern of okra, Abelmoschus esculentus (L) Moench in Tamil Nadu

Abstract

An extensive survey on pesticide usage pattern was conducted using well structured questionnaire format among 120 farmers in six major okra growing districts of Tamil Nadu viz., Vellore, Salem, Dharmapuri, Dindigul, Coimbatore and Trichy during 2016. Among the list of 24 pesticides identified belonging to slightly to highly hazardous toxicity class, the widely used pesticides by farmers were imidacloprid (36.67%), acephate (33.33%), exodus (15.00%), flubendiamide (14.17%) and dimethoate (14.17%). Major source of information on pesticide was pesticide dealers (75.83%). A very paltry percentage of respondents sprayed based on the recommended dose (20.83%) and gave attention towards pesticide label (5.83%). Majority of the farmers followed the common waiting period of 1 day after spraying (65.00%) and spraying interval of 10-14 days (52.33%). The farmer’s knowledge was lagging on the recommended pesticide, dosage, safe harvest interval, label claim and personnel protection during spray operation but their knowledge was fair enough on disposal of pesticide containers, mixing and measurement of pesticides.