Strengthening watermelon farmer’s Self-Care to prevent chemical pesticide toxicity.

Abstract

Introduction : Currently  most of the watermelon farmers used a lot of chemical pesticides and their self-cares to prevent chemical pesticides was not appropriated. This resulted in physical harm and environment. Researcher is interested to study appropriate guidelines for watermelon farmer’s self-cares to prevent chemical pesticides toxicity.

Objective : To identify watermelon farmers’ self-cares for preventing chemical pesticides toxicity and develop implement guidelines for strengthening watermelon farmer’s self-cares to prevent chemical pesticide toxicity.

Method : The study was conducted in Kudchum district, Yasothon Province. Purposive sampling was used to 31 participants. Data were collected  by questionnaired , fogus group  and participant observation . Data such as age, education, and income per month was analyzed using percentage, mean and standard deviation. Content analysis was employed to analyze qualitative data.

The result : The results of this study showed that farmer’s self-cares to prevent chemical pesticide toxicity during mixing, spraying and after spraying was not appropriated. After the project, results demonstrated that watermelon farmer had learned appropriate self-cares for preventing the pesticide toxicity,  during mixing, spraying  and after spraying the pesticide and they can develop and implement appropriate guidelines for strengthening watermelon farmer’s self-cares.

In conclusion : These guidelines for strengthening watermelon farmer’s self-care to prevent chemical pesticide toxicity were developed by researcher and the participants with  action research method.

Keyword: Strengthening,  Watermelon farmer, Chemical pesticides