The study constitutes 150 random sample collected from Parsa districts. For sampling purpose the two municipalities Bahudramai and Pokhariya were purposively chosen. Within the municipalities the 150 sample were selected using simple random sampling technique.

Primary data were collected using semi-structured interview schedule developed by panel of agricultural economist and agronomist. To increase validity and reliability, farmers were interviewed by researchers and experience extension officers. The information gathered was verified by focus group discussion (FGD) and 1 Key Informant Interview (KII). Secondary data were obtained from DADO annual reports, newsletters, bulletins and relevant articles, Department of Agriculture, Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MOAC). The survey was collected between January and June of 2019.

The information collected was arranged systematically. Before entering the data codes were designed and units were standardized. Different analytical software like STATA, SPSS, MS-EXCEL have been used to analyze acquired information. Probit regression analysis was done to determine that factor affecting application of pesticides. In this regression model, status of pesticide use (Yes =1 or No =0) is used as dependent variable. The adoption of new agricultural technology is influenced by three factors like (i) farm and farmers’ associated attributes like farmer’s education, age, family size and farm size (ii) attributes associated with the technology (Adesina & Zinnah 1993) and the farming objectives (CIMMYT, 1988).

i = 1 if farmers Spray pesticide; j = 0 otherwise

where Pij = Status of Pesticide spray

Xij = Age, gender dummy, Year of schooling, family size, ethnicity, Family Type (Nuclear = 1 Otherwise = 0), Household Size (Numbers), Family Involved in Agriculture (Numbers)

Total Owned Land (Bigha), Total Vegetable Grown Land (Bigha), Total Income (In NRS), Income From agriculture (In NRS), Income From Livestock (In NRS).

βij = parameter to be estimated

εi = error term

The table 1 shows the socio economic profile of the respondent household. The results showed that majority of the respondent were madeshi (64.6%), hindu (96.66%) and male (80%). The majority of them were economically active age group i.e. mean age 40.23% having long farming experience (17 yr). But they were found to be illiterate i.e. mean year of schooling 5%. Farming size and nature of the commodity affect the farmer’s decision to apply pesticide. The average size of land owned by farmers was found to be 1.62 bigha out of which 91% of land is cultivated. Within the cultivated area vegetable farming is done on 41.58 % of area. In the research area major source of income is cucumber production. It covers 17.2% of total income from agriculture.

Source: Field Survey, 2019.

Result showed that, out of 150 respondents surveyed, 54.7% of the respondents were involved in pesticide spray rest of the farmers do not use any type of pesticide in the cucumber table 2.

Source: Field Survey, 2019.

Among the pesticide user 80% of the farmers have husband or son for the spray of pesticide. Very few woman i.e. 7.5% spray pesticide by themselves shown in table 3.

Source: Field Survey, 2019.

Research revealed that farmer mostly use insecticides (68%) in cucumber farming followed by fungicides (22.33%), herbicides (8.65%) and other (0.33%) as shown in Table 4.

Source: Field survey 2019.

According to World Health Organization pesticides were classified into 6 classes as listed in table 5. The result shows that almost all farmers spray pesticides two times as mandatory basis. However about 50% farmers go upto 5 times spray. Moderately Hazardous Pesticides (II) was found as major choice of farmers during spray during all application frequency. However, 30.49% of farmers during 1^st spray and 6% of farmers during second and fourth spray found to use Unlikely to present acute hazard (U) pesticide. Very few farmers were found to use bio-fertilizers i.e. 2.44% during second application (Table 5).

Source: Field survey 2019.

Source: Field Survey,2019(Note: Chi-square = 6.189* at 3df* indicates los 10%).

Integrated pest management is an eco-friendly solution which can minimize the use of pesticides reducing the cost of production. Result showed that out of 150 farmers, 47% of the respondents had received IPM training. If we analyse the data comparing with ethnic groups, it was observed that majority of madhesi group i.e. 79% received training fallowed by Dalit 26.8%. Whereas Brahmin/Chettri haven’t got any type of training (Table 6).

The research revealed that among the pesticide users 17.7% of farmers used same brand of pesticides whereas the 34.16% change the brand regularly. Similarly majority of the farmers i.e. 48.78% change brand sometimes table 7.

Note: Chi-square = 5.168* at 2df* indicates los 10%.

Respondents were asked if they had been practicing any other pest control techniques besides pesticides. It was found that 93.33% didn’t practice any alternatives to pesticide spray whereas 4.67% had been practicing organic production (cattle urine) and remaining 2% had been practicing biological control measures (natural enemies) for pest control (Fig. 1).

Among the respondents; 26.83% wore shoes, 48.78% wore hat/head cover, 15.85% wore glasses, 74.39% wore mask, 36.59% wore full sleeve shirt, 36.59% wore full length trousers, 18.29% wore gloves and none of them used other personal protective equipments during spraying pesticides (Table 8). Most of the farmers reported that non availability of these equipment were major factor for not using.

Source: Field survey, 2019.

Among the respondents; 53% of them read the instructions on the pesticide bottle/packages, only 1% mixed pesticides with bare hands, 41% mixed with stick, none (0%) placed their mouth while cleaning sprayer’s nozzle, 39% cleaned using a thin wire, 57% took all the precautionary measure before spraying pesticides, only 42% were aware about the wind direction, none of them eat/drank/smoked during spray, none washed the pesticide bottle in pond/canal/river, none displayed signboard/red flag/an empty pesticide bottle to make other understand about the pesticide sprayed, none would let children/domestic cattle/poultry birds enter field within 7 days of spray, only 1% kept other things in the bottle, only 6% buried the packages/bottles after use, 99% kept pesticides under lock so that children wouldn’t reach, only 1% provided first aid treatment immediately after an accident and 100% took the patient to the doctor as soon as possible (Table 9).

Source: Field Survey, 2019.

Ninety six percent (96.6%) of the respondents reenter their field after 1 day of the pesticide spray, two percent (2.66%) of them re-enter after 2 days of the spray whereas, 0.66% re-enter the field after 0.5 days of the pesticide spray (Fig. 2).

The research shows that 91% of the respondents took bath after spraying pesticides but remaining 9% didn’t take bath after the spray (Fig. 3) and about 89% of the respondents changed clothes after spraying pesticides whereas remaining 11% didn’t change their clothes after the spray (Fig. 4).

Most of the respondents didn’t have any knowledge about the legalization of pesticides in Nepal. 66% respondents were unknown about the banned pesticides whereas remaining 34% had some knowledge and the source of knowledge was pesticide retailers (Fig. 5).

Probit Regression Number of obs = 150, LR chi2(12) = 28.03, Prob > chi2 = 0.0055, Log likelihood = -89.303036, Pseudo R2 = 0.1356

The results show that use of the pesticides affected by the Year of schooling, family type household income from livestock sector table. The research shows that if year of schooling increased by the 1% the probability of using pesticides decreased by the 3%. The result is highly significant at 5%. Similarly if the family is nuclear type then probability of pesticide application increased. Also if household size increases by 1% than probability of the pesticide use increased by 5%. Regarding the land holding the pesticide is negatively affected by the land ownership but it positively effects on the area allocated for the vegetable farming. According to (GC & Ghimire, 2018) highest share of pesticides is of vegetables. It accounts for 89% of the total pesticide use. If land allocated for vegetable farming increased by 1% the probability of the pesticide application by household increased by the 22%. Income from the livestock sector also discourages the application of pesticide on farm land.