VEGETABLE FARMERS’ KNOWLEDGE ON BENEFICIAL EFFECT OF BOTANICAL PESTICIDES FOR CONTROLLING PEST

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to describe the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents, to determine the extent of vegetable farmers’ knowledge on beneficial effect on botanical pesticides for controlling pest ; and to find out the contribution of selected characteristics of the farmers to their knowledge on beneficial effect of botanical pesticides for controlling pest in vegetable cultivation. The study was conducted with randomly selected 101 farmers in Raghunathpur union under Gopalgonj Sadar upazila of Gopalgonj district. A pre-tested interview schedule was used to collect data from the respondents during 1 January to 30 January, 2020. Farmer’s knowledge on beneficial effect of botanical pesticides for controlling pest was the dependent variable and it was measured on the basis of knowledge scores. Nine selected characteristics of the respondents considered as the independent variables of the study. For this study, regression analysis was performed to major the contribution of independent variables on dependent variable . Majority (64.36 percent) of the respondents had medium knowledge on beneficial effect of botanical pesticides for controlling pest in vegetable cultivation. Four characteristics of the farmers i.e. education,training on pest control ,extension contact and cosmopoliteness had the significant positive contribution with their knowledge on botanical pesticides for pest control. Rest five characteristics i.e. age, farm size, annual income from cultivation, organizational participation and time spends in vegetable farming had no significant contribution with their knowledge on beneficial effect of botanical pesticides for controlling pest.