Studies on farmers’ awareness regarding health threatening effect of pesticides used in vegetable cultivation H. D. Joshi* and Neha Thanki Smt. S. B. Gardi Institute of Home Science, Saurashtra University, Rajkot, India E-mail: drhdjoshi@yahoo.co.in Key words: farmer, vegetable, pesticide, awareness, Rajkot The use of agrochemicals including pesticides has been found to be the immediate and cheaper way to produce unblemished vegetables and increased farm productivity. This practice has unfortunately created numerous problems associated with pesticide abuse such as accidental poisoning to man, upset of natural environment balance and toxic residues that are hazardous to health in the environment. The researcher had undertaken the study of farmers’ awareness of health threatening effect caused by pesticides used in growing of vegetables by selecting 125 samples from Rajkot district and nearby area. A questionnaire was constructed as a tool of measuring awareness and used in this research in order to obtain basic information of samples, their behavior and awareness of pesticide usage. Collected data were analyzed and presented in percentage value. It was found that farmers have medium education level, good knowledge of pesticide usage and medium level of awareness. Most of the farmers know that pesticides are toxic chemical compounds and have health threatening effect but to make money and compete with upcoming financial challenges they use more pesticide to get more competent vegetable products. Introduction Vegetables are the fresh and edible portion of the herbaceous plants. They are important food and highly beneficial for health. They contain valuable food ingredients, which can be successfully utilized to build up and repair the body. India is the second largest producer of vegetables in the world, next to China. In India, vegetables are major constituents of diet as majority of Indians are vegetarian, with a per capita consumption of 135 g per day as against the