In an interview study conducted among smallholder rice farmers in Rufiji, Tanzania coastal mainland, and in Cheju, Zanzibar, farmer's pesticide use and risk awareness were assessed. The farmers generally lacked knowledge or possibilities to manage the pesticides as prescribed by the manufacturers. Few farmers knew what kind of pesticides they were using and had never seen the original packages, as pesticides were usually sold per weight or already diluted without labeling. Protective equipment was rarely used since they were not aware of risks associated with pesticides or did not know where to purchase protective gear. Only half of the farmers were aware of pesticides' health hazards and few associated pesticides with environmental problems. The pesticide use was relatively low, but based on farmers' pesticide handling and application practices, health risks were a major concern. Most farmers did not believe in successful rice cultivation without using pesticides to control pests. However, estimated yields did not differ between pesticide users or farmers using conventional methods or neem tree extract. To avoid negative effects on human health and the environment, the farmers need basic education and better assistance in their farming practices and pesticide management.

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Poor pesticide handling practices and risk-awareness among African farmers puts human health and the environment at risk. To investigate information available to farmers in Zanzibar (Tanzania), an interview study was conducted with retailers, and governmental pesticide importation to Zanzibar was examined. Pesticide retailers in Zanzibar did not have the necessary knowledge to safely handle or to advise farmers on proper use of pesticides. Licensed shop owners were rarely found in the shops; instead, untrained personnel were employed to sell the pesticides. Implementation of the legislation was weak, mainly due to lack of surveillance by governmental institutions. Poor governmental importation practices and unregulated private imports indicate serious weakness in the management of pesticide importation in Zanzibar. The situation calls for increased attention on the monitoring of pesticide importation and sales to protect the health of farmers and retailers, as well as the environment.

This study evaluates the risks of pesticides applied in rice-fish and rice farming, with and without integrated pest management (IPM) strategies, to non-target aquatic organisms in two provinces of the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. Pesticide inventories and application patterns were collected from 120 Vietnamese farmers through interviews. Risks were assessed using (1) Pesticide RIsks in the Tropics to Man, Environment, and Trade (PRIMET), a first-tier model, which calculates predicted environmental concentrations (PECs) of pesticides in the rice field, based on the compound’s physico-chemical properties and the application pattern, and then compares the PECs to safe concentrations based on literature data, and (2) species sensitivity distribution (SSD), a second-tier assessment model using species sensitivity distributions to calculate potentially affected fraction (PAF) of species based on the PECs from PRIMET. Our results show that several of the used insecticides pose a high risk to fish and arthropods and that the risks are higher among rice farmers than among rice-fish farmers. This study indicates that the PRIMET model in combination with SSDs offer suitable approaches to help farmers and plant protection staff to identify pesticides that may cause high risk to the environment and therefore should be substituted with safer alternatives.

The agrarian population in low- and middle-income countries suffers from a number of adverse health effects due to pesticide exposure. In Zanzibar, the government subsidizes pesticides to enhance local rice production. The objectives of this study were to assess Zanzibar smallholder rice farmers' pesticide use and self-reported health symptoms in relation to pesticide exposure, training, and use of protective measures and to raise awareness for future local policy formulation. An exploratory cross-sectional interviewer-administered study was conducted among 99 rice farmers. Participants were selected based on convenience sampling and stratified by expected exposure category. The study participants reported using pesticides in World Health Organization (WHO) Class II. Of pesticide users, 61% reported one or more symptoms of possible acute pesticide poisoning. Only 50% of pesticide users had received training in safe handling and application of pesticides, but those who had displayed a higher use of protective measures. Farmers who did not use protective measures were more likely to have reported skin irritation and headache, which, together with eye irritation, were the most commonly reported acute symptoms. The main sociodemographic differences between the expected exposure categories of pesticide users and nonusers were in gender and education level. Scaling up of training in safe handling and application of pesticides is needed. Further studies are required to better understand the mechanisms behind the choice to use pesticides or not.