FARMERS' KNOWLEDGE ON PESTICIDE APPLICATION IN VEGETABLE CULTIVATION

Abstract

The main objectives of this study were to assess the extent of farmers’ knowledge on pesticide application in vegetable cultivation, to describe some selected characteristics of the farmers and to determine the influences of selected characteristics of the farmers to their knowledge on pesticide use. The study was conducted with randomly selected 109 farmers in Ganna union under Jhenaidah sadar upazila of Jhenaidah district. A pre-tested interview schedule was used to collect data from the respondents during 10th February to 13th March, 2018. Knowledge on pesticide application in vegetable cultivation was the dependent variable and the dependent variable was measured by 15 different questions on knowledge on pesticide application in vegetable cultivation and the nine selected characteristics of the respondents contributed the independent variables of the study. Majority (56.8 percent) of the respondents had medium knowledge while 23.9 percent and 19.3 percent of them had low and high knowledge respectively on pesticide application in vegetable cultivation. Three characteristics of the respondent’s viz. education, training in vegetable cultivation and extension media contact had significant positive contribution to their knowledge on pesticide application in vegetable cultivation. But farm size, land under vegetable cultivation, income from vegetable cultivation, organizational participation and time spend in vegetable cultivation had no significant contribution to their knowledge on pesticide in vegetable cultivation.