Michigan State University, 55(E) Inya Myaing Rd, Bahan Township, Yangon, Myanmar.
Michigan State University, 446 W. Circle, Dr., Rm 301B, Morrill Hall of Agriculture, East Lansing, MI, 48824-1039, USA.
J Environ Manage. 2021 Feb 1;279:111821. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2020.111821. Epub 2020 Dec 17.
Information plays an important role in technology adoption and behavior change. This may be particularly true for pesticide decisions, which affect farmer income, health, and the environment. Pesticide use is increasing, and farmers often have incomplete knowledge of how pesticides affect crop production and health. Researchers regularly recommend information interventions to improve pesticide knowledge. This study uses a randomized controlled trial of a pesticide training program in Zambia to identify the effects of information on farmer knowledge of both the health risks and the production benefits of pesticides. We use detailed knowledge assessments covering identification and interpretation of toxicity color labels, pest control properties, and exposure to reveal a more complete picture of pesticide knowledge and to identify where information can have the greatest impact. Our results show that training significantly improved farmer knowledge, particularly for the more complicated pesticide characteristics that are harder to learn from experience. We also find that more experienced farmers had worse prior knowledge of pesticide toxicity, though they also had larger increases from training. Overall, our results suggest that pesticide information interventions should focus on the pest control properties of pesticides and on showing pesticides' true colors through toxicity identification by color labels.
信息在技术采用和行为改变中起着重要作用。这对于农药决策可能尤其如此，因为这些决策会影响农民的收入、健康和环境。农药使用量在不断增加，而农民往往对农药如何影响作物生产和健康的了解并不完整。研究人员经常建议采取信息干预措施来提高农药知识。本研究采用赞比亚的一项农药培训计划的随机对照试验，以确定信息对农民了解农药的健康风险和生产效益的影响。我们使用详细的知识评估，涵盖毒性颜色标签的识别和解释、害虫防治特性和接触，以更全面地了解农药知识，并确定信息可以产生最大影响的地方。我们的研究结果表明，培训显著提高了农民的知识水平，特别是对那些更难从经验中学习的更复杂的农药特性。我们还发现，经验更丰富的农民对农药毒性的先验知识较差，但他们从培训中获得的收益也更大。总体而言，我们的研究结果表明，农药信息干预措施应侧重于农药的害虫防治特性，并通过毒性颜色标签的识别来展示农药的真实特性。
