The Knowledge Level of Vegetable Growers in the Unsafe Use of Agricultural Chemicals in the Tikrit District

Abstract

The research aimed to identify the level of knowledge of vegetable farmers about the unsafe
use of agricultural chemicals in Salah El-Din Governorate, and to find the correlation
between some independent variables and the knowledge of farmers about the unsafe use of
agricultural chemicals.
The Tikrit district was chosen as an area to conduct the research, which includes a group of
agricultural villages famous for growing vegetable crops. A questionnaire was used as a tool
for collecting data from the respondents, consisting of two parts. The first part included a
number of questions related to independent variables related to vegetable cultivation in the
agricultural villages of Tikrit district, As for the second part, it included the preparation of a
data collection tool to measure the knowledge level of vegetable growers with the unsafe use
of agricultural chemicals in the Tikrit district. The knowledge test consisted of 54 standard
items (multiple choice) distributed over two fields, namely the field of agricultural pesticides,
and it consisted of 30 test items and the field of chemical fertilizers It included 25 items, thus
the number of test items reached 55 test items, and the maximum degree of knowledge level
was determined by the researcher at (100) degrees, The two types of validity were achieved
in some questionnaires for the specialized experts. The Cranbach alpha coefficient was used,
which gives the minimum estimated value of the reliability coefficient, as it was found that
the value of the Cranbach alpha coefficient amounted to (0.86).
The results showed a weak level of knowledge of vegetable growers with the unsafe use of
agricultural chemicals, and a significant correlation was found between the cognitive level
and some independent variables, and the research recommended the need to implement
extension activities whose material is related to the safe use of agricultural chemicals, as well
as taking into account the independent variables that showed a significant correlation
between them And the knowledge level of the respondents