Abstract
Objectives: The principal aim of this study is to investigate and analyze domestic usage amounts of insecticide in rice cultivation in order to provide fundamental data for establishing a job-exposure matrix(JEM) related to farmers working with agricultural insecticides. Materials and Methods: An investigation of domestic usage amounts of insecticides rice cultivation was performed through two methods. The first method utilized information on agricultural pesticides published annually by the Korea Crop Protection Association(KCPA). The second method made use of area of cultivation of rice as officially determined by Statistics Korea(SK). An estimation of domestic usage of insecticides in rice cultivation through the second method was determined by multiplying the total cultivation area of rice($m^2$) by the optimal spray volume of insecticides for rice cultivation per unit of cultivation area($kg/m^2$). Results: As a result of the analysis of public data regarding insecticides in rice cultivation, it was found that the domestic usage amount has decreased sharply from the first year of market sales(1969) to the final data year(2012). There is little difference in the annual usage trend of insecticides in rice cultivation between shipment and estimation. Also, the annual usage trends of insecticides in rice cultivation based on regional classification were nearly similar to those based on the overall aspect. Conclusions: The region which used the largest volume of insecticide in rice cultivation in Korea was the Jeolla Provinces, followed by the Gyeonsang Provinces, the Chungcheong Provinces, Seoul/Gyeonggi Province, Gangwon Province and Jeju Province. Substantially, the mean ratio of usage amounts of insecticide based on shipments and those based on estimation by cultivation area was $96{\pm}29%$, which indicates that the domestic usage amount of insecticide for rice cultivation corresponded to the optimal spray standard per unit area.
