Assessment of pesticide safety knowledge and practices in Vietnam: A cross-sectional study of smallholder farmers in the Mekong Delta

Over the past three decades, the Vietnamese Mekong Delta has experienced a significant increase in agricultural productivity, partly achieved through increased agrochemical use. To abate negative effects on human and environmental health, several national programs were launched to enhance safer pesticide use. This study aimed to assess the patterns and relationships of official sustainable agriculture educational programs, pesticide safety knowledge, and practices of smallholder farmers in the Mekong Delta. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 400 smallholder farmers from three communes in Thoi Lai district (Can Tho province) from March to May 2020. Twenty-four questions on pesticide safety knowledge and practices were used to identify traits using latent class analysis. Adjusted generalized linear regression was used to assess determinants of pesticide safety knowledge and estimate associations of pesticide safety knowledge with pesticide practices. 96.2% of participants have used at least one WHO class II pesticide during the past year while the use of specific personal protective equipment was limited mainly due to unavailability (37.0%) or discomfort (83.0%). High education (Odds Ratio (OR), 95% Confidence Interval; 3.84, 1.70–9.45), exposure to official educational programs (1.87, 1.13–3.12), peer-to-peer knowledge exchange (3.58, 2.18–6.00), and learning from governmental extension services (2.31, 1.14–4.98) were positively associated with increased pesticide safety knowledge. Compared to poor practices, pesticide safety knowledge was increasingly positively associated with intermediate (1.65, 1.02–2.66) and good pesticide practices (8.96, 2.58–31.12). These findings highlight the importance of school education and educational programs, access to PPE, and addressing discomforts of PPE to improve the protection of farmers from pesticide exposures. Simultaneously, pesticide market authorization processes should be reconsidered to promote the authorization of less toxic products. Further indepth studies on the nature of pesticides used, nonuse of personal protective equipment, and effectiveness of educational programs will further define leverage points for safer pesticide use

E-cadherin is regulated by GATA-2 and marks the early commitment of mouse hematopoietic progenitors to the basophil and mast cell fates

E-cadherin is a calcium-dependent cell-cell adhesion molecule extensively studied for its involvement in tissue formation, epithelial cell behavior, and suppression of cancer. However, E-cadherin expression in the hematopoietic system has not been fully elucidated. Combining single-cell RNA-sequencing analyses and immunophenotyping, we revealed that progenitors expressing high levels of E-cadherin and contained within the granulocyte-monocyte progenitors (GMPs) fraction have an enriched capacity to differentiate into basophils and mast cells. We detected E-cadherin expression on committed progenitors before the expression of other reported markers of these lineages. We named such progenitors pro-BMPs (pro-basophil and mast cell progenitors). Using RNA sequencing, we observed transcriptional priming of pro-BMPs to the basophil and mast cell lineages. We also showed that GATA-2 directly regulates E-cadherin expression in the basophil and mast cell lineages, thus providing a mechanistic connection between the expression of this cell surface marker and the basophil and mast cell fate specification