ADOPTION DETERMINANTS OF INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES ON TOMATO CULTIVATION IN NARSINGDI DISTRICT OF BANGLADESH

Abstract

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices are one of the most important technologies which are available in Bangladesh agriculture now-a-days. The present study was undertaken mainly to identify the determinants affecting the adoption of IPM practices by the tomato producers. For achieving the objectives, the study was conducted on 120 tomato farmers of Palash upazila (60) and Shibpur upazila (60) of Narsingdi district, of which 60 were considered as IPM users and 60 as IPM non-users. Descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression were used to achieve the objectives of the study. Majority of the tomato producers who produced tomato through IPM practices constituted middle aged farmers with middle family size and low farming experience and having small farm size, where most of the tomato producers who did not use IPM had medium farming experience with marginal farm holding and most of them were old aged with medium family size. The determinants that significantly affects adoption decision of IPM were age, education, societal membership, use of hired labor, livestock, training on IPM and distance to local market. Among these variables, training on IPM was the most influencing factor. Therefore, age and distance to local market have negative significance on adoption. Lack of credit, expensive inputs, unavailability of organic fertilizer, inexperienced trainers were some of the constraints faced by the tomato producers for both non-IPM and IPM practices. Government should give more emphasis on training and raising awareness on IPM to influence in using IPM.