Abstract
Chemical pesticides are among the most important barriers to sustainability in agriculture. Their numerous disadvantages for the environment and living organisms, as well as the food cycle, pushed developed societies to eliminate or reduce pesticides application. Meanwhile, consumers, due to the health problems, have changed their approach to safe and pesticide-free food products. However, in developing countries such as Iran, the lack of knowledge and awareness of safer food products is one of the main reasons for the lack of organized market for such products. In this study, which was conducted in 2010 among 394 consumers from Marand City (Iran), we tried to examine consumers’ awareness of pesticide-free fruits and vegetables and its determinants using ordered probit model. Data were collected through the field study and the questionnaire. According to the results, only 20% of the respondents have appropriate information about the features of pesticide-free fruits and vegetables, and about 24% have low information or lack of awareness. Estimation results show that factors such as educational level, positive environmental tendencies and adherence to healthy lifestyle index among individuals, as well as having children under the age of ten or people with specific diseases in the household have a positive and significant impact on awareness of pesticide-free fruits and vegetables. In this context, female respondents’ awareness was more than males. In this respect, appropriate advertising, conducting training courses for all levels of education, raising community awareness of sustainability issues and safer products besides environmental and a healthy lifestyle issues are suggested.
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Haghjou, M., Hayati, B., Pishbahar, E. (2020). Factors Affecting Consumers’ Awareness of Pesticides-Free Fruits and Vegetables. In: Rashidghalam, M. (eds) The Economics of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Perspectives on Development in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5250-2_9
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