An assessment on adoption of Bordeaux paste and mixture by apple growers in Jumla district, Nepal

Abstract

Apple production largely depend upon the orchard management. High hill of Nepal has great potentiality for apple production. Quality products are pre-requisite of today’s market. Quality product is only maintained through proper orchard management by adopting modern technology. This study focused on the determinants of adoption of Bordeaux paste and mixture by apple growers. A census survey was conducted to total 1500 apple growing farmers of Chandannath Municipality (1-10), Jumla in 2021 and interviewed individually with pre-tested structured interview schedules. Chandannath Municipality being the command area of Apple Super-Zone, Prime-minister Agriculture Modernization Project (PMAMP) having potential producing center was selected for study. The collected information was coded and analyzed by using STATA. The data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics and Probit Model of regression. Good explanatory power of probit model was revealed through likelihood ratio chi-square (LR chi2) was statistically significance at 1% level and pseudo R2 value was 0.6618. Variables such as gender, economic status of farmers, training received, experienced of farmers and availability of plant protection equipment were found statistically significant and are positively related to adoption. Others factors such as age of farmers and education status of farmers were positively correlated with adoption whereas factors such as active members of family, access to credit, farm size, family type and distance form extension services were found negatively related with the adoption of Bordeaux paste and mixture and statistically not significant. Providing subsidies to marginalized farmers, provision of training and extension service to rural farmers would increase adoption of Bordeaux paste and mixture for healthy apple production.