Effectiveness of agricultural extension’s farmer field schools (FFS) in Pakistan: the case of citrus growers of Punjab province

Muhammad Fakhar Imam,Wenkai Wan,Muhammad Hammad Raza,Muhammad Yaseen,Nasir Abbas Khan,Muhammad Awais Ali Khan

doi:10.1590/0103-8478cr20200807

Muhammad Fakhar Imam, Wenkai Wan + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1590/0103-8478cr20200807

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Abstract

ABSTRACT: Citrus is one of the major exported fruits of Pakistan. Especially Kinnow cultivar is famous across the globe because of its aroma and taste. The overall production of citrus is reported as half of the potential because of the non-adoption of research-based practices and lack of agricultural extension services and training of the citrus growers. In the last few years, the department of agricultural extension has started training programs called Farmer Field Schools (FFS) for citrus growers in the major citrus growing zone of the Punjab province, i.e., Sargodha region. This research was conducted in the Sargodha district to evaluate the knowledge and skills gained by the farmers from the FFS. The interview schedule was designed for the purpose of data collection. The data was collected from 120 farmers randomly selected from 15 FFS in the study area. All the respondents were participants of the FFS. The data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The Results of the study showed that 40% of the farmers learned about citrus verities, one-third of respondents learned about the management of new plants/orchards, 28% of the respondents got knowledge about the cultivation of fruits, and one-fourth of respondents acquired knowledge and skills about layout and management of citrus orchards. These findings conclude that training course has a positive influence on farmers’ farm management skills; hence emphasize on its persistence and further improvement by the concerned authorities.

Highlights

Citrus belongs to the family Rutaceae and is grown in tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world, spanning more than 140 countries (BATOOL et al, 2007)
The respondents were further asked about the skills and knowledge they learned from Farmer Field Schools (FFS) training
About 35% of the respondents learned about the appropriate irrigation gap; 15% of the respondents learned about using the instruments like tensiometer, i.e., a way to check tensiometer readings in citrus orchards

Summary

Introduction

Citrus belongs to the family Rutaceae and is grown in tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world, spanning more than 140 countries (BATOOL et al, 2007). V.51, n.9, lifestyle (AHMED & AZMAT, 2019) Among citrus fruits, sweet orange is dominant and much more widely distributed and grown than any other citrus species. Citrus is a prized fruit of Pakistan and ranks first among all fruits both in area and production (IJAZ et al, 2014). Citrus fruits comprise about 40% of the total fruits produced in Pakistan, where it is cultivated over an area of 199,400 hectares with an annual production of about 2.29 million tons (GOP, 2019). In the rest of the world, the share of sweet orange cultivars is more than 70%, owing to its more choice of varieties ranging from early-maturing to late-maturing and a smaller number of seeds per fruit. The potential yield of citrus in Pakistan is 18000-20000 kg/ ha (KAMAL et al, 2013)

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