Impact of integrated pest management programs on knowledge of tribal farmers of Karnataka

Abstract

ICAR-National Research centre on Integrated Pest Management, New Delhi and University of Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences, Shivamogga, Karnataka, India were organising various training programs to cater felt needs of the remote tribal farmers. The training programs focus on integrated pest management technologies which make use of locally available material for managing pests. The present study was conducted during the year 2020 and a total of 85 tribal farmers and women were selected from Sirsi district of Karnataka. The ex-post facto evaluation of training programmes revealed that there was an overall increase of 45.9 per cent in knowledge level of respondents regarding various plant protection activities. However, 23.0 per cent gaps indicated that tribal men farmers and women were not well conversant of IPM activities. More technical gaps were recorded on identification of pest and natural enemies, use of bio control agents. Socio-economic attributes of tribal farmers had not much influence in improving their knowledge on plant protection strategies and hence, a number of training programmes were organised need-based training IPM training programmes to enhance their knowledge and skill of these farmers to modify their plant protection strategies for enhancing the crop yield and income for their lively-hood.