The first community-based intervention to promote safe pesticide use by developing knowledge, attitudes, and practices among Lebanese farmers

Pesticides, despite their known toxicity, are widely used in developing countries to increase their crops. Evaluating the pattern of the pesticides is recommended for the appropriateness of adequate intervention. A pilot community-based educational intervention tackling the safe use of pesticides by promoting farmers' knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) was conducted to assess the effectiveness of such interventions in developing the knowledge and positive attitudes of farmers to towards safe use of pesticides. The pilot intervention is a quasi-experimental quantitative study, based on pre and post approach. A pre-post questionnaire tested for its internal reliability (alpha = 0.78), carried out at the baseline and immediately after the training sessions. Thirty-seven farmers from two regions (Cazas) in Mount Lebanon district have participated. Descriptive analysis and a paired t-test were conducted. The results show statistically significant improvements after the intervention. The mean score of the farmers' knowledge significantly increased (M = 0.8, SD= 0.2) compared to (M = 0.6, SD = 0.1) at the baseline (p < 0.05). As for practice, significant increase was observed (M = 1.466, SD = 0.590) compared to (M = 0.663, SD= 0.295) at the baseline (p < 0.05). Also for positive attitude, a significant increase was observed (M = 0.97, SD = 0.20) compared to (M = 0.9, SD= 0.17) at the baseline (p < 0.05). This one-time educational intervention successfully increased the farmers' KAP regarding safe pesticide use. Continuous pesticide education is recommended to induce the responsible and protective behaviors among farmers in Lebanon.