Impact of better cotton initiative on health cost and pesticide exposure of women cotton pickers in Punjab, Pakistan
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Impact of better cotton initiative on health cost and pesticide exposure of women cotton pickers in Punjab, Pakistan Muhammad Asim Yasin 1
&
Khuda Bakhsh 1 & Rafaqet Ali 1 & Hafiz Irshad Hussain 1
Received: 6 May 2020 / Accepted: 20 August 2020 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Cotton picking is an exclusive work that is performed only by women in Pakistan. They are directly exposed to pesticide as cotton picking is usually done without protective measures which cause destructive effects on their health. Better cotton standard system involves trainings of cotton pickers to use precautionary measures and avoid pesticide exposure. The current study has been conducted to explore the health cost of women cotton pickers in conventional versus better cotton in Punjab, Pakistan. Primary data were collected from 600 cotton pickers through an organized questionnaire from three districts (Layyah, Toba Tek Singh, and Bahawalnagar). Ordinary least square method was used to find the pesticide exposure and socioeconomic factors affecting the health cost of women cotton pickers. The study shows that total cost per person, cost of medication, productivity loss, cost of accompanied person, and dietary expenses in better cotton are significantly less than those in the conventional cotton. Cost of precautionary measures in better cotton is significantly higher than conventional cotton as better cotton pickers are trained to use precautionary measures. Moreover, education, distance from hospital, and precautionary measures affect health cost significantly. Results suggest that education should be improved in rural areas. Better cotton standard system should be promoted in Pakistan through education and other training programs. Women cotton pickers should be encouraged to use protective measures. Keywords Health cost . Pesticide exposure . Women cotton pickers . Better cotton . Pakistan
Introduction Cotton is considered the dirtiest crop in the world for its pesticide use to control pests, which accounts for around 33% of the input cost (Farooqi 2010). Most of the farmers in developing countries are uneducated and untrained. This deficiency act as hindrance in adopting proper pest management practices (Chen et al. 2013; Arshad et al. 2009). In conventional cotton production, the use of pesticides is often twice than the recommended dose (Banuri 1998; Hasnain 1999; Khan et al. 2011). Excessive use of chemical pesticides not only harms public (farmers, farm workers, and consumers) health but also decreases financial returns and depreciates the value of an environment (Tilman et al. 2002; Makhdum et al. 2011; Responsible Editor: Lotfi Aleya * Muhammad Asim Yasin [email protected] 1
Department of Management Sciences, COMSATS University Islamabad, Vehari Campus, Multan Road, Vehari, Pakistan
Carvalho 2006; Mancini et al. 2005; Atreya 2008; Pimentel 2005). The situation is more alarming in developing countries, like Pakistan, where most of the farmers and farm workers seldom
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