Adoption of good agricultural practices (GAP) among vegetable farmers of Palakkad District

Abstract

Quality of food will ensure the healthy life of human beings. Vegetables play a major role in human health and nutrition. People are now focused on the benefits of consumption of fresh and residue-free fruits and vegetables. Quality of vegetables greatly depends on the production system as well as handling procedures before and after harvest. The concept of Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) evolved recently as a result of the big concern about food safety and quality and the environmental sustainability of agriculture. The study entitled “Adoption of Good Agricultural Practices among vegetable farmers of Palakkad district” was aimed to examine the extent of adoption of GAP in vegetables. Palakkad district was purposively selected for the study based on the highest area under vegetable cultivation in Kerala. The respondents were selected using multistage proportional random sampling method. Four blocks namely Nenmara, Alathur, Chittur and Kollengode representing more area of vegetable cultivation were selected from the district and 30 farmers with a minimum of 30 cents of vegetable cultivation were selected randomly from each block. Based on the total area of cultivation of vegetables in the district, bitter gourd, vegetable cowpea and bhindi were selected for the study. Thus, a total of 120 vegetable farmers in Palakkad district constituted the sample for the study. Analysis of the profile characteristics of vegetable farmers showed that majority of the vegetable farmers (67 per cent) belonged to middle age category. Most of the vegetable farmers (42.50 per cent) had secondary school education. Fifty-four per cent of the respondents were having high level of experience in vegetable cultivation. Most of the vegetable farmers (56 per cent) belonged to marginal farmers with respect to area under vegetable cultivation. Majority of the farmers had medium level of annual income (65 per cent). Around 89 per cent of the vegetable farmers had undergone training in GAP. Fifty-seven per cent of the vegetable farmers belonged to medium category with respect to mass media exposure. More than half of the vegetable farmers (52 per cent) had medium level of extension contact. Most of the farmers belonged to medium category of social participation (58 per cent), economic motivation (52 per cent) and market perception (47 per cent) followed by forty-eight per cent of the farmers belonged to the category of low risk-taking ability. Nearly sixty per cent of the respondents (59 per cent) had high environmental orientation. 97 Assessment of the Awareness level of GAP among vegetable farmers showed that majority of the respondents had medium (77 percent) level of awareness, while 12 per cent of them had low level of awareness and 11 per cent had high level of awareness. Regarding the awareness level on various components of GAP, farmers were highly aware about land preparation and soil management (81.42) as well as harvesting and post -harvest handling (84.32) practices. Awareness level on the remaining practices viz. seed quality parameters, sowing and intercultural operations, irrigation management and drainage, nutrient management and plant protection measures were found to be medium level. Overall Adoption Index of GAP in vegetable cultivation was found to be medium (73.21). The Adoption Score on components of GAP viz. land preparation and soil management (79.56) and harvesting and post -harvest handling (81.05) was high, while that on seed quality parameters, sowing and intercultural operations, nutrient management and plant protection measures were medium. The component that had lowest level of Adoption Score was irrigation management and drainage (54.04). Comparing the overall adoption of GAP among three categories of vegetable farmers by using Kruskal Wallis One way Analysis, it was found that there was no significant difference between bitter gourd, vegetable cowpea and bhindi farmers. The socio-economic and psychological characteristics of vegetable farmers played a vital role in determining their adoption of GAP. The results of Karl Pearson correlation analysis showed that area under cultivation, experience in vegetable cultivation, training received, mass media exposure, extension contact, economic motivation, market perception and environmental orientation had positive and significant relationship with the adoption of GAP. Major constraints in adoption of GAP were identified as difficulty in management of pests and diseases, high cost and the complicated process involved in GAP certification and increased cost of bio-inputs. It could be concluded that adoption of GAP will be a viable option for the vegetable farmers, if their awareness and capacity building is enhanced and ensure specialized markets for GAP products. Increased access to subsidized bio inputs and motivating farmers in following cost-effective certification process like Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) will also contribute to improved adoption of Good Agricultural Practices.