ANALYSIS OF ADOPTION GAP OF WEED MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AMONG FARMERS UNDER DIFFERENT CROPPING SYSTEMS IN DISTRICT KHANEWAL (PUNJAB), PAKISTAN

Abstract

Weed management has become a major problem, which needs to be addressed properly by adopting all possible measures to control weeds. Weed infestation is a very serious problem as it can reduce 20-40% yield of wheat, 20-63% of rice, 20-55% of cotton, 10- 18% of potato, and up to 45% of maize by utilizing productivity of land in the form of water and nutrients through root zones. This situation calls for an urgent need to create awareness among the farmers about the recommended weed management practices. There are many extension organizations both public and private working in Pakistan for the introduction of weed management practices among the farmers. However, there are many constraints in the adoption of these practices like shortage of proper facilities available to farmers, high prices of weedicides, adulteration in weedicides, ineffective extension services, and lack of awareness among farmers regarding recommended weed management practices. Keeping in view this situation, present study was designed to analyze the adoption gap of weed management practices by farmers under different cropping systems. The present study was conducted in district Khanewal (Punjab), Pakistan. The most commonly practiced cropping systems in all the four tehsils of district Khanewal are rice-wheat, cotton-wheat, cotton-maize and maize-potato. Total sample size used in this study consisted of 400 farmers (respondents) selected by simple random sampling technique by drawing 100 farmers from each cropping system. A pre-tested, validated and reliable interview schedule was used for data collection. The collected data were analyzed using frequency distributions, weighted scores, standard deviation, mean and LSD values. The Chi-square was used for computing the relationship of socioeconomic characteristics of the respondents with different factors relating to the adoption gap of effective weed management practices. The age, education, farm size, tenancy status, farming experience and annual income of the respondents had shown highly significant association with their awareness regarding weed management practices whereas sources of income had a significant relationship with their awareness about weed management practices in all the cropping systems (C-M, C-W, M-P and R-W). Education, farm size, and annual income of the respondents showed highly significant effects on their adoption. Age and income had a significant association, whereas, tenancy status, farming experience, sources of income had non-significant association with their adoption about weed management practices in all the CSs. Non-availability of labour, lack of time, non-availability of machinery, adulteration and high cost of weedicides were major hindrances in the adoption of recommended weed management practices as reported by the respondents. The high adoption gap of weed management practices in all the CSs was observed. In order to minimize the adoption gap, it was suggested that pure and effective weedicides should be made available at reasonable prices and extension field staff (EFS) should arrange more visits to solve the problems of farmers. Policy makers should take steps to ensure regular checking of rate lists and licenses of herbicide dealers to maintain prices and quality of inputs. It was also suggested by the farmers that there should be good cooperation between farmers and EFS. Furthermore, printed material should be provided to the educated farmers to get deep insight of weed management tactics. It is also proposed that EFS should be equipped with proper training regarding weed management strategies, and their knowledge level and communication skills must be upgraded.