Quality of life of organic and conventional soybean farmers

Staduto, Jefferson Andronio Ramundo; Kreter, Ana Cecília; Galante, Valdir Antonio

doi:10.1590/1809-4422asoc0050r2vu27L2OA

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Original Article • Ambient. soc. 27 • 2024 • https://doi.org/10.1590/1809-4422asoc0050r2vu27L2OA copy

Quality of life of organic and conventional soybean farmers

Qualidade de Vida dos Produtores de Soja Orgânica e Convencional

Calidad de Vida de los Productores de Soja Orgánica y Convencional

Authorship SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

Abstract

This paper examines the quality of life of organic and conventional soybean farmers in Brazil. We analyzed self-reported symptoms associated with exposure to pesticides and measured life satisfaction levels of the farmers. We applied three models to analyze the data according to the dependent variable distribution - dichotomy, Poisson, and ordinal. Questionnaires were applied to 62 and 139 organic and conventional soybean farmers, respectively. We found that the probability of organic farmers to report symptoms related to pesticides exposure was 59% lower than conventional farmers; and organic farmers had a 68% higher odds ratio for life satisfaction compared to conventional farmers. We conclude that organic soybean production has improved the quality of life for agricultural workers, while also enhancing the sustainability of rural areas.

Keywords:
Organic production; health; life satisfaction; soybean; sustainable rural development

Variable	Description
	Dependent variables
Symptom	declared at least one disease symptom = 1; declared no disease symptom = 0
Symptom_weight	count-data: sum of symptoms in which each one was weighed for 3, 2, and 1, representing frequently, sometimes, or rarely, respectively
Life_satisfaction	self-reported about life satisfaction: 1 to 10 fewest=1 and very good=10
	Independent variable
Organic_farm	organic producer=1; conventional producer=0
	Demographic variables
Gender	male=1; female=0
Age	years old
Schooling	no one= 0; elementary school =1; high school =1; under college = 3
	Financial and economic variables
Health_insurance	private health insurance=1; private health insurance =0
Farm_area	farm size (hectares)
Soybean_area	soybean crop size (hectares)
Gross_profit	number of bags per farm
	Health variables
Self-reported_health	very good/ good=1; regular/ bad/ very bad =0
Smoking	smoking= 1; nonsmoking=0
Doctor go	number of medical appointments in the last 12 months
PPE_time	how many years wearing personal protection equipment (PPE)
Application_number	number of applications of phytosanitary protection products or pesticides per agricultural year*
Highly_toxic	number of times per agricultural year that one handles pesticides of toxicological classes III and IV
Mildly_toxic	number of times per agricultural year that one handles pesticides of toxicological classes I and II
	Satisfaction variables
Life_satisfaction	self-reported about life satisfaction: 1 to 10 fewest=1 and very good=10
Income_satisfaction	self-reported about income satisfaction 1 to 10 fewest=1 and very good=10
Family_satisfaction	self-reported about family condition satisfaction: 1 to 10 fewest=1 and very good=10
Education_satisfaction	self-reported about education satisfaction: 1 to 10 fewest = 1 and very good=10
Work_satisfaction	self-reported about work satisfaction: 1 to 10 fewest=1 and very good = 10

Variable	Organic farmer	Conventio nal farmer	Pearson Chi-squared^a	“t” student^b	Mann-Whitney^c
Variable	Mean	Mean	chi²	t	z
Symptom	0.52	0.62	1.86	---	---
Symptom_weight	1.66	2.23	---	---	1.86***
Gender	0.97	0.97	0.018	---	---
Age	54.03	51.57	---	1.44*	---
Schooling	1.40	1.40	---	---	-0.16
Health_insurance	0,18	0,65	39.07*	---	---
Self_reported_ health	0.58	0.63	0.49	---	---
Smoking	0.08	0.03	5.43	---	---
Doctor_go	2.23	2.4	---	---	1.79***
PPE_time	9.19	13.61	---	2.78*	---
Application_number	7.92	12.04	---	7.28*	---
Highly_toxic	2.34	10.13	---	---	8.42*
Mildly_toxic	3.11	6.3	---	---	6.46*
Farm_area	49.87	43.53	---	---	3.57*
Soybean_area	21.81	45.04	---	---	6.16*
Gross_profit	163.09	210.23	---	---	4.42*
Life_satisfaction	8.74	8.53	---	---	1.20
Income_satisfaction	7.76	8.24	---	---	2.07**
Family_satisfaction	8.82	8.97	---	---	0.51
Education_satisfaction	9.08	9.31	---	---	1.31
Work_satisfaction	9.15	8.91	---	---	1.991*

Variable	Model 1	Model 2	Model 3
Organic_farm	-0.180**	-0.212**	-0.224**
	(0.090)	(0.096)	(0.101)
Age	-0.003	-0.004	-0.004
	(0.003)	(0.004)	(0.004)
Schooling	0.038	0.040	0.038
	(0.056)	(0.056)	(0.059)
Health_insurance	0.193**	0.181**	0.201**
	(0.084)	(0.088)	(0.093)
Self-reported_health	-0.157**	-0.155**	-0.150**
	(0.074)	(0.075)	(0.076)
Doctor_go	0.010	0.011	0.012
	(0.015)	(0.015)	(0.015)
PPE_time	0.005	0.005	0.005
	(0.004)	(0.004)	(0.004)
Application_number		-0.009	-0.011
		(0.011)	(0.011)
Highly_toxic		-0.007	-0.007
		(0.006)	(0.006)
Mildly_toxic		0.015	0.016
		(0.012)	(0.012)
Farm_area			0.000
			(0.001)
Soybean_area			0.001
			(0.001)
LR chi2	14.35**	16.51***	17.22
Observations	201	201	201

Variable	Model 1	Model 2	Model 3
Organic_farm	-0.757***	-0.719***	-0.581***
	(0.208)	(0.226)	(0.238)
Age	0.003	0.003	0.008
	(0.009)	(0.010)	(0.010)
Schooling	0.452***	0.438***	0.502***
	(0.127)	(0.128)	(0.131)
Health_insurance	0.611***	0.660***	0.475**
	(0.206)	(0.213)	(0.222)
Self-reported_health	-0.487**	-0.461**	-0.480**
	(0.217)	(0.217)	(0.215)
Doctor_go	0.090***	0.095***	0.086***
	(0.033)	(0.034)	(0.034)
PPE_time	0.015*	0.015*	0.014*
	(0.009)	(0.009)	(0.009)
Application_number		0.026	0.036
		(0.028)	(0.028)
Highly_toxic		-0.017	-0.013
		(0.018)	(0.018)
Mildly_toxic		0.029	0.025
		(0.033)	(0.034)
Farm_area			-0.006**
			(0.003)
Soybean_area			0.000
			(0.003)
LRchi2	45.33*	47.16*	54.95*
Observations	201	201	201

Variable	Model 1	Model 2
Organic_farm	1.641*	1.679*
	(0.479)	(0.511)
Age	1.032**	1.042*
	(0.013)	(0.014)
Schooling	1.179	1.147
	(0.230)	(0.228)
Self-reported_health	4.445***	4.333***
	(1.347)	(1.332)
Doctor_go	0.994	0.988
	(0.052)	(0.054)
Farm_area	0.997	0.996*
	(0.002)	(0.002)
Gross_profit	1.000	1.000
	(0.001)	(0.001)
Income_satisfaction	-	1.046
		(0.110)
Family_satisfaction	-	1.048
		(0.162)
Education_satisfaction	-	1.161
		(0.189)
Work_satisfaction	-	1.442***
		(0.190)
cut1	-2.04	3.594
cut2	-0.74	4.911
cut3	0.77	6.445
cut4	2.78	8.542
cut5	4.25	10.128

LRchi2	36.16*	53.24*
Observations	201	201

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[1] Jefferson Andronio Ramundo Staduto ✉ Jefferson.staduto@unioeste.br