YIELD GAP MINIMIZING STRATEGIES FOLLOWED BY TOMATO GROWERS OF BURICHANG UPAZILA UNDER CUMILLA DISTRICT

Abstract

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L) is one of the major vegetable crops cultivated in Bangladesh, which plays a major role in supplementing the income of small and marginal farmers of Burichang upazila under Cumilla district. The objectives of this study were to describe the socio-economic profile of tomato growers; to determine the extent of tomato yield gap minimizing strategies by the growers; to explore the contributing relationship between the socio-economic profile of tomato growers with their yield gap minimizing strategies; and to identify the causes of tomato yield gap. The study was conducted with randomly selected 101 tomato growers in one union of Burichang upazila under Cumilla district. A pre-tested interview schedule was used to collect data from the respondents during 22

February, 2021. Yield gap minimizing strategies of tomato cultivation was the dependent variable and it was measured on the basis of a five (5) point rating scale with 15 strategies were used. The majority (57.43%) of the tomato growers had medium tomato yield gap minimizing strategies compared to 26.73% of them having high tomato yield gap minimizing strategies and 15.84% having low yield gap minimizing strategies. Among 11 selected characteristics of the farmers 4 characteristics namely, yield gap of tomato cultivation, education, professional training experience and farmers’ knowledge on tomato cultivation had significant contribution to their tomato yield gap minimizing strategies. According to Causes Index (CI), “early message of weather forecasting” ranked first followed by “inadequate extension service to support tomato production”, “high cost of inputs (seed, fertilizer and pesticides)” and “pressure from middleman to sell produces at lower price.” Education of the farmers had most significant contributing factor on their practice of tomato yield gap minimizing strategies. So it can be concluded that education increased knowledge and ability of farmers to understand and response to advance agricultural practices which drove them to adopt advance strategies to minimize tomato yield gap. th January to 21 th