Draft Research Paper

1. Presented By
Md Nazmul Islam
ID- 223i417i
GSICS, Kobe University
A presentation on the Survey Design of
Original Research
Significance of Environmental Health focusing on
Chemicals and Insecticides: Exposing Detrimental
Effects and Towards Solution in the Context of The
Northern Part of Bangladesh
Social Research Methods for Development
Professor Yasuharu Shimamura
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2. Table of Contents
 Research Background & Objective
 Research Hypothesis
 Research Questions
 Sampling Strategies
 Methodologies for Collecting Data
 Design of Questionnaires
 Expected Outcomes
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3. Research Background & Objective
 In my First Semester of Kobe University, I have taken “Environmental Health”
course. During the first class, our sensei told us to read a book entitled Silent
Spring written by Rachel Carson. I read the whole book and certain lines and ideas
became ingrained in my heart. In the whole book, the author cites hundreds of
instances of the harmful effects of chemicals and pesticides. In her famous
environmental science book Silent Spring, Rachel Carson delineates chemicals
that are sprayed on the cultivated lands, woods, gardens, lawns and so on remain
forever in the soil and destroy its organic capacity, penetrate the crops grown
there; thus find their way into human bones and organs and stagnate there in a
chain of poisoning and death. During the rainy season, these chemicals are washed
away going along with the streams, rivers, seas and even oceans. Making things
worse, Carson.R.,(1962) argued that they flow inexplicably by underground water
sources and when emerged, they bring about extensive losses to vegetation,
livestock and those that drink water from once pure wells. In other words, this
book stimulated me to dive deep into my research.
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4. Research Background & Objective
 Worldwide it is estimated that approximately 1.8 billion people
engage in agriculture and most use pesticides to protect the food and
commercial products that they produce. Approximately 5.6 billion
pounds are used worldwide (Michael C.R. Alavanja, 2010)
 In a recent survey of Boro (winter rice), potato, bean, eggplant,
cabbage, sugarcane and mango farmers in Bangladesh, over 47% of
farmers were found to be overusing pesticides. With only 4% of
farmers formally trained in pesticide use or handling, and over 87%
openly admitting to using little or no protective measures while
applying (Dasgupta, S., & Meisner, C.,2005).
 It is mentionable that Northern part of Bangladesh consists of 15
districts namely Rangpur, Dinajpur, Panchagarh, Nilphamari,
Gaibandha, Thakurgaon, Rajshahi, Joypurhat, Bogura, Naogaon,
Sirajganj etc. and as per the data of BBS 2020, two-thirds crops of
Bangladesh are grown in these districts.
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5. Research Hypothesis
1. Approximately 70% of chemicals and
insecticides that are used in crops have huge
detrimental effects on human health. Infants and
young children are more susceptible to pesticides.
2. Besides, most of the farmers are not educated
or trained and aware enough to determine the
right amount and extent regarding using these
chemicals and pesticides and strict enforcement of
the laws is important to reduce the excessive use
of the pesticides.
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6. Research Questions
1. What are the harmful effects of chemicals,
pesticides on the natural environment and
human health?
2. Why do farmers use chemicals and pesticides
excessively in the crops and why are not farmers
and consumers aware of the pernicious effects
of them?
3. Is the impact direct or immediate or long-
term?
4. How can we reduce the injurious aftermaths?
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7. Sampling Strategies
 The primary objective of sample design for this research is to make it
representative of the whole population. Districts of the country were defined as the
sampling strata. A two-stage, stratified cluster sampling approach will be used for
the selection of the survey sample.
 For this survey, each district has been treated as a domain; a total of 500 Primary
Sampling Units (PSUs) i.e. Union Parishads have been selected from the 15
districts. A total of 30 PSUs have been selected following systematic random
sampling with probability proportion to size (PPS) method from each domain
(district) on the basis of Population Census 2022.
 A PSU has been consisting of around 20 respondents; 15 of them are farmers and
the other 05 are consumers. Structured open-ended questionnaires will be used to
collect information on pesticide use and practices, risk perceptions, knowledge,
Pesticide consumption precautions and damage-averting behavior, and health
effects from 450 farmers and 150 consumers, randomly selected.
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8. Methodologies for Collecting Data
1. Face to face interview will be carried out following Paper and Pencil
(PAPI) method. The data collection process involves the following
steps as described below: questionnaire design, pre-testing the
questionnaire, findings of the pre-test and finalization of the
questionnaire. Questionnaire would be open-ended.
2. Intensity of the pesticides and chemicals in crops will be identified
through laboratory testing with the help of the local Agricultural
Extension Officer.
3. 3. Secondary Data from Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics and
Department of Agricultural Extension regarding pesticide and
chemical use.
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9. Design of Questionnaire
Questionnaire for Farmers
1. What is your overall formal or informal edu
2. cational status?
3. Do you know anything about sustainable farming and why is it important?
4. Have you got any training related to farming your crops?
5. Have you gained any knowledge regarding using the right amount of
chemicals and pesticides as per the need of a certain crop?
6. Do you use pesticides and chemicals excessively in your crops?
7. If yes, how have you got this?
8. If not, why have you not got this?
9. How many years have you engaged in farming?
10. Have you observed any environmental impacts due to use or over-use of
chemicals and pesticides in your own surroundings?
11. If yes, what type of impacts have you observed?
12. Do you know the harmful effects of chemicals and pesticides on
environmental health?
13. If yes, can you describe some of the harmful effects?
14. How have you come to know them?
15. If not, why don’t you know the harmful effects?
16. Why are the effects so significant?
17. Do you know the harmful effects of chemicals and pesticides on human
health?
18. If, yes, can you describe some of the harmful effects?
19. How have you come to know them?
Questionnaire for Farmers
1. If not, why don’t you know the harmful effects?
2. Why are the effects so significant?
3. Have you observed any health impacts due to use or over-use of chemicals
and pesticides?
4. If yes, what types of impacts have you observed?
5. Do you know the relative toxicity of each chemical and pesticide applied to
the land?
6. Do you know the WHO Class Description of each chemical?
7. Do you take any protective measures while applying chemicals and
pesticides in the crops?
8. From when have you started experiencing the health impacts?
9. Do you feel any irritation or any other health consequences while spraying
pesticides or using chemicals?
10. Do you feel any irritation or any other health consequences within one hour
of spraying pesticides or using chemicals?
11. What kinds of negative health effects are you going through now?
12. Do the existing health impacts worsen while or after using the chemicals
and pesticides?
13. Do the existing health impacts get alleviated while stopping the use of
pesticides and chemicals for a few days?
14. Have you consulted with any physician regarding your health condition?
15. If yes, what has he pointed out about the causes of the health condition?
16. Does the physician suggest anything about the use of chemicals and
pesticides?
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10. Design of Questionnaire
Questionnaire for Consumers
1. Have you observed any environmental impacts due to use or
over-use of chemicals and pesticides in your own surroundings?
2. If yes, what type of impacts have you observed?
3. Do you know the harmful effects of chemicals and pesticides on
environmental health?
4. If yes, can you describe some of the harmful effects?
5. How have you come to know them?
6. If not, why don’t you know the harmful effects?
7. Why are the effects so significant?
8. Do you know the harmful effects of chemicals and pesticides on
human health?
9. If, yes, can you describe some of the harmful effects?
10. How have you come to know them?
11. If not, why don’t you know the harmful effects?
12. Why are the effects so significant?
13. Have you observed any health impacts due to use or over-use of
chemicals and pesticides?
14. If yes, what types of impacts have you observed?
15. From when have you started experiencing the health impacts?
Questionnaire for officials of Ministry of
Agriculture and Field officers
1. How can we reduce the use of chemicals and
pesticides?
2. How can we decrease the excessive use of
pesticides?
3. Can we train every farmer of a Union
Parishad in using pesticide in the right
manner?
4. Can laws play a vital role in restraining the
use of pesticides and chemicals, like Japan?
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11. Expected Outcomes
 Farmer characteristics of the 821 farmers surveyed, all were male,
averaging 35 years in age (range 16 – 75), and half with at least primary
education. 80% of the farmers own their farms with an average farm size of
1.14 acres. Each farmer grows rice and a variety of vegetables. The average
annual income reported was BGD Taka 97,057 ($1 USD=63.2 Taka)
($1,536 USD).
Pesticides in Use In terms of the number of pesticides applied, there were a
total of 161 formulations (using 50 different active ingredients). Classifying
these by the WHO risk classification system, on average, 19% were
extremely hazardous (WHO class I), 51% very hazardous (WHO class II),
10% moderately hazardous (WHO class III) and 20% were low risk (class
U).
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12. Expected Outcomes
 Pesticide Overuse of pesticides, for this research, was calculated as the amount by which the
farmer exceeded the recommended dose indicated on the label of the pesticide container. If
the farmer used less than the recommended dose, overuse was coded as zero. This calculation
was performed for all chemicals used in each application, then summed across individuals.
Approximately 47% of the sample was found to have overused pesticides, to some extent, and
with an average overuse rate of 3.4 kg per growing season. Due to lack of education and
training, they are unknowingly using excessive amount of it.
 Training and averting behavior as farmers mix and spray pesticides, 75% of the farmers
do not use any protective measures i.e. using hand gloves and face mask and more than 70%
farmers has not received any training regarding chemical and pesticide use.
 It is mentionable that all the districts do not have the same proportion of the use of pesticides
and chemicals. Our cross-section regression results suggest widespread pesticide overuse in
the districts of Panchagarh, Naogaon, Joypurhat, chapainababganj, Rajshahi and Rangpur. Our
results also highlight that pesticide overuse in Bangladesh is heavily skewed towards a few
selected vegetables – beans and eggplant.
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13. Expected Outcomes
 Health effects our analysis relied solely on self-assessed/ reported
health effects, where farmers were questioned if they experienced any
health impairment after mixing and spraying pesticides. Over 69% of
farmers experienced at least one symptom, with the most commonly
reported as neurological (headaches: 27%, dizziness: 8%), eye
(irritation: 26%), dermal (skin: 13%), and gastrointestinal (vomiting:
9%). The interviews further revealed that 26% of the respondents
experienced multiple health effects, with an average of 3 and a
maximum of 5. Upon asking sick farmers whether they believed that
these symptoms were related to pesticide use, 82% believed this to be
true. From consumers’ perspective, Interviews from the parents reveal
that children are the most vulnerable section of society regarding the
impact of pesticides and chemicals. However, in case of adults, the
effects seem to be long-term.
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14. Quantitative Analysis
In other words, Linear regression estimates the conditional mean of the response
variable.” This means that, for a given value of the predictor variable XX (70% use
of chemicals and pesticides), linear regression will give you the mean value of the
response variable YY (detrimental effects on human health). Y=β0+β1X where β0 is
the intercept, and β1 is the coefficient of the slope. To find the intercept and slope
coefficients of the line of best fit, linear regression uses the least squares method,
which seeks to minimise the sum of squared deviations between
the nn observed data points y1...yny1...yn and the predicted values, which we’ll
call ^yy^: ∑i=1(yi−^y)2. In the same way, autocorrelation theory with OLS
estimation can be used here where, use of pesticides is our explanatory variable and
effect on human health is dependent variable.
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15. References
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Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) 2021. Statistical Yearbook of Bangladesh, December 2003, Planning Division,
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Use: Evidence from Bangladesh.
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