Awareness and Adoption of Integrated Pest Managemet in Cotton by Growers of Hasilpur Area in Pakistan.

Rural communities depend upon cotton as cash crop for their livelihood. Agro-based industries are depending upon its yield. Our per acre cotton yield is still far behind than the developed countries. Integrated pest management project was launched in Punjab and run by agriculture extension department. Farmer Field Schools were formed at each village level. Present study was designed to evaluate the role of integrated pest management for cotton production technologies by the registered growers of Hasilpur, Punjab. In order to collect this information an interview schedule was prepared and respondents (150 growers of farmer field school) were interviewed personally by the author. The findings revealed 98.7%, 100% and 98% cotton growers were aware of hoeing, leaf curl virus and biological control of insects-pests. Before integrated pest management all the farmers used pesticides haphazardly while 1.3% used after it. 90.7%, 86.7% and 97.3% farmers were aware of economic threshold level of harmful insects, use of pesticides at economic threshold level and clean cotton picking respectively. 94.7% growers adopted thinning of plants, 91.3% knew pest scouting, 87.3% used pesticides after pest scouting while 74% farmers used pesticides both at morning and evening. It was concluded that integrated pest management project enhanced the skills of farmers and resulted in higher yields of quality cotton through reduction of pesticides sprays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]