Knowledge and Beliefs Regarding Agricultural Pesticides in Rural Guatemala ROGER POPPER* KARLA ANDINO MARIO BUSTAMANTE BEATRIZ HERNANDEZ LUIS RODAS Management Systems International (MSI) 600 Water Street SW NBU 7-7 Washington, DC 20024, USA ABSTRACT / Throughout Central America, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Zamorano Pan-American Agricultural School support a Safe Pesticide Use program. In 1993, a study of results was carried out among farmers and housewives in eastern Guatemala. Aspects of the methodology included: (1) participation of extension workers in all aspects of the study; (2) small, region-focused samples (eight cells, 30 interviews per cell); (3) comparison to control groups of untrained farmers and housewives; (4) a traditional questionnaire for studying acquisition of specific knowledge; and (5) a flexible instrument for building a cognitive map of knowledge and beliefs regarding pesticides. The cognitive map is a step toward applying modern psychocultural scaling, an approach already well developed for medicine and public health, to environmental problems. Positive results detected include progress at learning the meaning of colors on containers that denote toxicity and where to store pesticides. Pesticide application problems detected were mention by farmers of highly toxic, restricted pesticides as appropriate for most pest problems and of insecticides as the correct solution to fungus problems, and the widespread belief that correct pesticide dosage depends on number of pests seen rather than on land or foliage surface. Health-related problems detected were admission by a vast majority of housewives that they apply highly toxic pesticides to combat children's head-lice; low awareness that pesticides cause health problems more serious than nausea, dizziness, and head- aches; and a common belief that lemonade and coffee are effective medicines for pesticide poisoning. Origins of This Study At this point in human history, agriculture and food supply depend on chemical pesticide use. Unfortunately throughout the world, overuse and misuse of chemical pesticides in agriculture cause environmental and health damage, and Central America is no exception (Leonard 1987, World Resources Institute 1993, Thrupp 1994, RPC-ICAITI-CINTEGRA, S.A. 1994). The environmental damage is through soil and water con- tamination and through raising resistance to pesticides of pests and their natural predators. Damage to human health by pesticides is to producers of agricultural prod- ucts and their families who handle pesticides and con- taminated objects and to the populace in general through consumption of agricultural products and through water and soil contamination. What people in rural areas know and believe about the uses and effects of pesticides determines in large part how pesticides are applied and managed. To up- grade farmers' and their families' knowledge regarding pesticides, and thereby improve pesticide management practices, the US Agency for International Development (USAID), through its Regional Natural Resource Man- agement (RENARM) project, has supported a Safe Pesti- cide Use campaign in the countries of Central America. Within the Safe Pesticide Use campaign in Central America, the organization responsible for development of training materials and for training extension agents is the Zamorano Pan-American Agricultural School in Honduras. In 1993, the Zamorano School requested as- sistance from Management Systems International (MSI) in studying the effects of their efforts. As a laboratory for development of instruments and methods, training and extension activities with farmers and housewives in east- ern Guatemalawere chosen. Throughout Guatemala the Safe Pesticide Use program is a joint effort among not only the Zamorano School, but also DIGESA (the Guate- malan government's General Directorate for Agricul- tural Services), and Agrequima (an office of the agribusi- ness-based GIFAP network headquartered in Belgium). KEY WORDS: Pesticides; Beliefs; Knowledge; Guatemala; Health; Farmers; Housewives *Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Literature on Pesticide Management Training An on-line computer search of many US and several Central American libraries revealed a sizable literature Environmental Management Vol. 20, No. 2, pp. 241-248 © 1996 Springer-Verlag New York Inc.