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Pesticide use and impact assessment of SKUAST-K spray schedule on the socio-economic conditions of the people of apple growing region of Jammu & Kashmir

Authors :
Ghulam Mohammad Bhat
M. H. Wani
Iqra Qureshi
Abid Qadir
Arshad Bhat
Source :
Journal of Horticultural Science & Technology. :24-28
Publication Year :
2020
Publisher :
Pakistan Society for Horticultural Science, 2020.

Abstract

Pesticide use has changed considerably the overall scenario of horticulture over the past few decades throughout the world. It has revolutionised the gamut of horticulture in terms of quality and quantity of produce. Jammu and Kashmir the northern state of the Indian union produces high quality apple that are exported to every nook and corner of the country along with few international borders as well. Pesticide trade has shown a remarkable growth in the valley from past few decades. About 70-80 per cent of populace in the region is involved directly or indirectly with the apple trade be it apple production, transportation, marketing, cold-storage, box-making, packing material, labour and the dealers and sub-dealers of pesticides and fertilizers. The worse part of pesticide business in the region is that from past few years the sub-standard and spurious brands have taken over the market and has reduced production and quality of apple resulting the distress and poverty of apple growers in the region. The only Agricultural University; Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir (SKUAST-K) in the region has framed a spray schedule, but unfortunately, either due to ignorance or lack of extension services, the growers are not fully following the schedule, resulting in losses and huge financial expenses. In this backdrop, the present study was undertaken with an extensive survey of 600 apple growers from the valley comprising of 260 adopters of SKUAST-K spray schedule and 157 non-adopters of spray schedule. Propensity score matching model was employed to get accurate results. In addition, four matching methods were employed to get counterfactual/equally likely match of the adopter and non-adopters in distribution. Results of nearest neighbour method, kernal method, radius method and stratified method, respectively revealed that adopters of spray schedule are at saving side by saving Rs. 1.13/-, Rs. 33717.75/, Rs. 9773.69/- and Rs. 11952.90/- of money as compared to their controlled group.

Details

ISSN :
26649489 and 26173220
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Journal of Horticultural Science & Technology
Accession number :
edsair.doi...........fafafad5f5b27a86cf8d06e60a0c517f
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.46653/jhst20030124