Pesticides and herbicides have been used by paddy farmers in their agricultural activities to increase rice crop yield for the past few decades. Paraquat is mostly used because of its efficiency in killing the weed faster compared to other chemicals. However, the usage of this chemical with limited knowledge and proper management could affect smallholders’ health, handling, weed condition, cost of operation and may cause problems for the farmer and the production of paddy. The study aimed to identify the health risks and critical impact of paraquat usage on smallholders and paddy production in Bagan Serai, Perak. The data have been collected through face-to-face interviews and analyzed using descriptive and multiple regression analysis in SPSS version 21. The result revealed that smallholders mostly experienced headaches, skin itchiness, and eye itchiness after exposure to the use of paraquat. Besides, in terms of costing shows that high cost of production in the paraquat usage on paddy production among the smallholders. Thus, multiple regression analysis shows that health conditions were the most highly influenced by the impact of paraquat usage with a coefficient of 0.382, followed by the handling of paraquat in paddy fields. The government and non-governmental organizations must continually raise awareness and knowledge of effective pest and disease control measures to assist farmers in increasing national rice production by producing high-quality rice rather than utilizing paraquat in their paddy fields.
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