Effectiveness of pesticide labels (pictograms and color codes): a cross-sectional study of farmers’ understanding and practices in Lebanon

AbstractThis study aims to assess the effectiveness of the pesticide labels (pictograms and color codes) and the technical sign-related practices among the farming community in Lebanon. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted between November 2021 and October 2022 among 104 farmers from three Lebanese provinces. An Arabic survey (score-based questionnaire) was conducted to evaluate the farmers’ levels of understanding the pesticide labels (pictograms and color codes) and relevant practices to pesticide labels. Spearman correlation and One-Way ANOVA were applied to determine the statistical correlation between farmers’ understanding and practice levels and their significant differences in gender, age, provinces, educational level, and attendance of training programs. Results: It was found that the majority of the participants showed moderate levels of understanding (71.2%) and practices (75%). Spearman’s correlation analysis concluded a weak correlation between the understanding and performance levels (p < 0.05). Comparative analyses showed higher levels of label pictograms’ understanding and label-related practices with a significant difference (p < 0.05) among younger and well-educational farmers. However, training programs significantly enhanced the farmers’ practices only. Incidence of irritations-to-poisoning symptoms was self-reported as consequences of misinterpretations and misuse of pesticides. Conclusion: The study findings highlighted the limited effectiveness of pictograms and color codes in Lebanon and thereby highlighted the necessity of training programs addressing the knowledge of technical signs among farmers.Keywords: Pesticide labelpictogramsunderstandingpracticeslebanon Author contributionsWissam Ghach, and Sara About Ibrahim had contributed to the conceptualization, Manuscript writing, content review, data analysis, result interpretation, and project supervision. Hana Zeineldeen, and Rim Naji had contributed to project administration, recruitment of farmers, data collection, and manuscript proof reading.Disclosure statementThe authors report that there are no competing interests to declare.Additional informationFundingThis study was supported by the Modern University for Business and Science and the Canadian University Dubai.