Knowledge and adoption towards good agricultural practices: a special reference to leafy vegetable cultivation in Kalutara district

Y S U Abayarathna,A L Sandika

doi:10.4038/tare.v22i3-4.5488

Abstract

This study attempted to investigate the farmers’ knowledge and adoption towards Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) for leafy vegetable cultivation. Bandaragama Divisional Secretariat of Kalutara District was selected as the study area by considering the significant number of target population scattered in the area. A hundred respondents were selected randomly out of 320 leafy vegetable growers in the study area. Data were collected by employing an interview schedule with systematic observation. Farmers were aware of GAPs. Nevertheless, their adoption level was low to moderate level due to practical issues of the implementation of GAPs. There was a positive correlation of knowledge and adoption (r = 0.862, p = 0.01) indicating that a high level of adoption to the GAPs by the knowledgeable farmers. Therefore, appropriate training and knowledge programmes need to be implemented to increase the adoption level. Further, the low level of adoption of GAPs was observed and the reasons might be farmers' negative attitudes toward the implementation of GAPs, negligence and low investment ability to practice GAPs activities. Therefore, relevant private and public institutes have to pay great attention in this regard. And also, it can be suggested that the public and private sectors’ helping hand is required to transform farmers as agripreneurs to run an agribusiness enterprise with maintaining high-quality standards through effective and efficient supply chain management.

Highlights

Significant numbers of empirical evidence have proved that farmers tend to apply higher dosages of inorganic fertilizers and agrochemicals to increase production without considering the actual requirement as well as human and environmental health
Many attempts have been made in recent years in Sri Lanka to study the pesticide use practices in vegetable cultivation, especially in the upcountry and mid-country to provide the status of the issue and to develop guidelines to minimize pesticide use
The need for increased vegetable production has led to the adoption of more intensive cultivation practices which increases insect pest and disease attacks and a greater reliance on pesticides as the major form of control

Summary

Introduction

Significant numbers of empirical evidence have proved that farmers tend to apply higher dosages of inorganic fertilizers and agrochemicals to increase production without considering the actual requirement as well as human and environmental health. Munkittrick 2011, Padmajani et al 2014; Pathirana et al 2015; Marasinghe et al 2017) On this background, Nishantha et al (2016) pointed out the need for paradigm shifts in insect pest and disease management in crop production because it is a highly debatable and sensitive issue in the present scenario. Farmers‟ needs for higher and profitable production of „safer foods‟ to consumers and guidelines to curtail exposure levels of toxic chemicals are summarized below based on the farmers‟ suggestions and findings of the present study In this context, the FAO has introduced the “Good Agriculture Practices” (GAPs) a framework to balance the issue with wide-ranging objectives. There is a growing demand for sustainable agricultural development in response to the environmental impacts of conventional agriculture (Baudoin et al 2013)

Objectives

Methods

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Conclusion