Phytosanitary diagnostic and practices associated with pesticide use in gardens in a protected environment in the city of Boa Vista in Roraima.

The objective of this study was to diagnose pests, diseases, weeds, and practices associated with the use of agrochemicals on the production of vegetables under protected conditions in Boa Vista, Roraima, Brazil. The descriptive study was conducted in urban and rural areas during February to April 2008, in the gardens monitored by Project Greenhouse, administered by the Municipal Development agricultural Secretary of the City. The data collection instrument was a semistructured questionnaire with 50 questions, applied in situ without notice to 75 farmers (47% of the population under study). Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics. After analyzing the data it was found that the whitefly, aphids, thrips and caterpillars were the insect pests that needed to be better controlled. The principal diseases were blight and leaf blight. Significant weed pests originated from the species of the families Poaceae, Cyperaceae, Amaranthaceae, and Portulacaeae. Relative to the use of pesticides, the results showed that 68% of farmers used insecticides, 24% fungicides, and 8% herbicides; 92% indicated that they had received some kind of technical guidance and 41.3% seek the technical assistance in order to acquire a pesticide. Therefore, we conclude that there is a high incidence of problems in plant vegetable gardens, intensive use of pesticides, a variety of formulations of insecticides, fungicides and herbicides associated with the adoption of practices and attitudes of risk for farmers, which can aggravate the direct and indirect problems of intoxication, and cause contamination to the environment.