Abstract

                                The need for pesticide free agriculture is multidimensional. But alternative pest control technologies available at present are not very successful and popular among the farmers in different production environments and across crops. Hence this study estimates the awareness and adoption of integrated pest and disease management practices in major pesticide consuming crops in Tamil Nadu. Through a multi stage sampling procedure data were collected from 360 randomly chosen farmers growing the major pesticide consuming crops namely cotton, paddy, chillies, groundnut and vegetables (tomato and brinjal) in their major production centers. The results indicate as a share in total cost the plant protection expenditure was around 15 per cent in brinjal and tomato, 12 per cent in cotton, seven per cent in chillies, six per cent in groundnut and four per cent in paddy. There was significant gap between awareness and adoption of IPM practices for different crops. In paddy cultivation farmers' awareness on the different recommended practices ranged from 20 to 100 per cent but adoption was relatively low and it ranged from 0 to 60 per cent for different IPM practices. In cotton, IPM practices with very low adoption rate were collection and destruction of larvae, application of recommended dose of nitrogen, use of pheromone traps and light traps, application of NPV baits, parasitoid card and synchronized sowing. In groundnut there was zero adoption in five IPDM technologies. In chillies adoption ranged from 23 to 97 per cent for different technologies. In vegetables, adoption was 100 per cent in few technologies while there was zero adoption in many technologies.

Key words : Pesticide Consumption, Cost of Pest Control, Awareness, Adoption and Integrated Pest and Disease Management (IPDM)