Assessing farmers’ knowledge, attitudes, health risk perceptions, and practices toward pesticide use in Morocco

A cross-sectional study of 314 agricultural workers across seven major farming areas in Morocco found that most respondents could not name the pesticides they used. Among those with complete data (n = 300), 86.3% were unable to name the pesticides.

Only 33.3% (n = 100) demonstrated good knowledge of pesticide safety, while 44.7% (n = 134) expressed positive attitudes toward safe pesticide application. Structural analysis showed that safety attitudes were the strongest determinant of reported pesticide safety practices, with health risk perception also influencing them.

Guided by the Theory of Planned Behavior, the findings suggest that improving knowledge alone is insufficient and that behavioral interventions should prioritize attitudinal change to promote safer pesticide use. Notably, 93% of farmers showed willingness to participate in human biomonitoring initiatives, highlighting the feasibility of integrating biomonitoring and surveillance into prevention-oriented agricultural health strategies.

By elucidating behavioral and perceptual drivers of pesticide practices in low-resource farming communities, the study provides evidence to inform targeted public health and occupational safety interventions in Africa. These results support prioritizing attitudinal change in pesticides safety programs over mere knowledge enhancement.

The study concludes that targeted programs focusing on attitude and behavior changes are likely to be more effective in reducing health risks from pesticide use among farmers in resource-limited settings. It also notes substantial farmer willingness to engage in biomonitoring as a pathway to integrated health surveillance.

Agronom.Info