Assessing Farmers’ Perceptions of Agrochemical Impacts on Human Health: Scale Development and Validation

Abstract

Aim: In recent times, agriculture needs increases in production, which aggravates the use of agrochemical products, exacerbating the effect on the environment and human health. Though different initiatives exist farmers often overlook these safety norms because awareness, knowledge, education and intention are limited. Therefore, this study standardise a tool to depict farmers' perception on health issues related to agrochemical impact. Methods: Research design involved a multi-step process, initiate with construction of items. After content validity test and item refinements were done through judges rating. Refined items were administered among 190 farmers in three different agroclimatic zones of West Bengal, India. The responses of randomly selected participants were used for reliability and validity tests with the help of exploratory factor analysis, Cronbach's alpha, split-half and correlation analysis. Result: In the content validity stage, out of 80 items, only 24 items were secured 85% relevancy score. Exploratory factor analysis determined a satisfactory KMO value of .870. Among 24 items, the Rotated component matrix loaded in 6 components and after exclusion of single item that was loaded in sixth component, a total 5 compnents with 16 items on a 0.50 threshold level has been considered. Reliability test indicated a satisfactory Cronbach's alpha value of .875 and split half coefficient of .822. After correlation analysis results suggested for retention of 16 items for the final scale. Conclusion: The scale confirms items are reliable, valid and effective to assess the perception level of the farmers related to agrochemical usage on human health. These insights will help to refine policies with precision to target aims related to sustainable agriculture and can work as a convenient research tool for researchers.