EVALUATION OF THE LEVEL OF AWARENESS ON SAFE USE OF HERBICIDES BY TEA GROWERS IN BOMET COUNTY, KENYA

Abstract

Herbicides play a major role in crop protection and control of vector borne diseases in  all  agricultural  sectors.  This  study  was  carried  out  to  evaluate  the  level  of awareness on safe use of herbicides by tea growers in the catchments of Kapkoros and Tirgaga tea factories in Bomet County, Kenya. A pre tested questionnaire was used with the adoption of purposive and stratified random sampling methods to collect  primary  data  from  363  respondents  in  all  the  six  tea  growing  zones. Secondary  data was collected from  health centres in  the study area and data analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Most of the tea growers (52%, n=363) preferred to use an herbicide with glyphosate formulation called round up in  varying  degrees.  There  was  significant  statistical  difference  between  the preferred herbicide and the years of tea growing (χ2 =17.03, p<0.05 n=362).The study show that 80.2% of the respondents in the area read the herbicide labels before use. Majority of the tea growers (90.4%) use Personal Protective Equipments (PPEs)  when  handling  herbicides.  Before  or  after  the  use  of  herbicides,  most respondents stored them in stores (99.6%).On accidental contact with herbicides, 86.2% adopt to washing their bodies with water while 13.2 % visit a doctor and 0.06% just wipe the herbicides from their bodies. There was significant statistical difference between the frequency of herbicides use and the economic benefits of using herbicide (χ2 = 64.869, p <0.05, n=362).    The study found that 22.9% of the tea growers have not received any training. Of the trained, 44.9% were found not to have been trained on herbicide handling.   The study showed that most cases of intoxication were accidental (70%) and first aid was administered before one is taken to the hospital. It was also found that the level of intoxication were mostly mild (80%) which was mainly due to inhalation (80%) of the  chemicals  while  those  from  ingestion  and  contact  were  20%  and  10% respectively.  In most of the reported case of intoxication, the study found that victims (50%) do not know the dangers associated with improper use, whereas 30% were completely ignorant and a paltry 20% had some knowledge of intoxication. It is therefore recommended that training of tea growers in Bomet County on proper use of herbicides  be  improved  by  Kenya  Tea  Development  Agency  (KTDA)  and  other relevant authorities so as to help minimise the negative impacts associated with improper use.