FARMERS' KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICES RELATED TO THE SAFE USE OF AGRICULTURAL PESTICIDES AND HORMONES IN FAYOUM GOVERNORATE

The research aimed to identifying the sources of agricultural information from which the respondents derive their information regarding the use of agricultural pesticides and hormones, and the extent to which they benefit from them, determine their level of knowledge, implementation and awareness of the importance of following the recommendations for the safe use of pesticides and hormones, identifying the factors affecting it. The research was conducted in Fayoum Governorate, Egypt,  on a simple random sample of farmers in the villages of Al-Adwa in Fayoum District and Moniyat Al-Hayt in Atsa District, the size of the sample amounted to 361 respondents, which represents 5.8% of the total volume. Field data were collected through a personal interview questionnaire. The most important results of the study were that more than two thirds of the respondents (68.7%) had a low and medium level of knowledge of the recommendations to be followed when using pesticides and hormones, as 39.3% and 29.4% for each of them respectively, compared to almost a third of the sample (31.3%) had a high level of knowledge of those recommendations, and 60.7% had a low level of awareness of the importance of the guiding recommendations to be followed, compared to only 6.6%, their level of awareness was high for those recommendations, and that more than half of the respondents (52.1%) had a low level of application of the guiding recommendations to be followed, and that compared to only 13.3%, the level of their implementation of these recommendations was high.