Adoption of IPM practices by brinjal growers

Introduction

Vegetables are regarded as "protective supplement food" since they are rich in vitamins, minerals, and vital amino acids that are necessary for human metabolic systems to work normally. Vegetables are therefore a crucial part of a balanced diet and are needed to maintaining excellent health. In the subtropics and tropics, brinjal (Solanum melongena L.) is a widely cultivated vegetable crop. One of the main obstacles to raising the brinjal crop's potential output is insect pest infestation. The crop can be attacked by a variety of insect pests and diseases at different stages with variable degrees of damage, which results in significant losses by lowering the potential yield and output quality. Farmers with small land holdings and resources are compelled to practice monoculture and intensive farming because to the profitable returns from brinjal, which also makes it more difficult for different insect pests and pathogens to survive from season to season. Tripathi et al (2024) [7] indicated that, one of the most popular vegetables grown in tropical and subtropical areas, including India, which is one of the world's biggest growers, is brinjal (Solanum melongena), also referred to as aubergine. Brinjal is prized for its nutritional qualities and range of culinary uses. In addition to causing direct harm, biotic stress insect pests were the main cause of vegetable production problems in India. Additionally, they serve as vectors for a number of viral illnesses, and the typical yield loss from major insect pests ranges from 33 to 40%.

Methodology

The present study was conducted in Nagpur district of Maharashtra State. Nagpur district was purposively selected for the study due to its significant area under vegetable and brinjal cultivation. Out of the fourteen tahsils of Nagpur district, Saoner, Kalmeshwar, and Mauda tahsils were purposively selected based on the larger area under brinjal cultivation. From each selected tahsil, five villages having a maximum number of brinjal growers were selected purposively. The number of respondents from each village was determined according to the availability of brinjal growers by using proportionate random sampling. Thus, a total sample of 120 brinjal growers was selected for the www.extensionjournal.com present investigation. The collected data were further classified, tabulated, analyzed, and interpreted using appropriate statistical tools.

Adoption of integrated pest management practices by the brinjal growers

One of the objectives of this study was to study the adoption of integrated pest management practices by brinjal growers. Adoption shows the present state of actual use of integrated pest management practices of brinjal crop by the farmers. Adoption of various integrated pest management practices related to brinjal growing by the respondents were further ascertained and practice wise information have been reported in Table 1. The finding presented in Table 1, observed that, with respect to culture practices, highest proportion of respondents (85.83%) had complete adoption of plant spacing, near about three fourth respondents (73.33%) had no adoption and 23.33 per cent had partial adoption of recommended varieties, more than fifty percent respondents (51.67%) had no adoption, while 25.00 per cent and 23.33 per cent of respondents had complete and partial adoption of seed treatment respectively. Regarding removal of crop residue from the field 50.00 per cent of the respondents had partial adoption followed by 35.83 per cent had complete adoption. As far use of fertilizer does 41.67 per cent, 30.00 per cent and 28.33 per cent of respondents had complete, partial and no adoption respectively. It was noticed that, majority of respondents (70.00%) had no adoption of green manure (sunhemp, dhaincha) and 23.33 per cent of respondents had partial adoption. Regarding crop rotation majority of respondents (79.17%) had complete adoption and 20.83 per cent had partial adoption of crop rotation. In respect of mechanical practices, more than half of respondents (54.17%) had complete adoption, and 32.50 per cent had partial adoption of used of yellow sticky trap to monitor and trap sucking pests like aphids, jassids and whiteflies. While 61.67 per cent and 25.00 per cent of respondents had complete and partial adoption respectively regarding use of 5 pheromone traps per ha. for monitoring and 20 pheromone traps per ha. for mass trapping with leucilure for fruit and shoot borer. Whereas more than half of respondents (53.34%) had partial adoption and 30.83 per cent had complete adoption of clipping of infested plant parts for shoot and fruit borer. It is also found that, 52.50 per cent and 37.50 per cent of respondents had partial and complete adoption respectively regarding rogue out the little leaf affected plants from time to time. Regarding mulching with polythene majority of the respondents (64.17%) had complete adoption and 25.83 per cent and 10.00 per cent of respondents had no adoption and partial adoption respectively. It was observed that, in biorational method regarding use of plant product higher proportion of the respondents (41.67%) had no adoption, whereas 38.33 per cent and 20.00 per cent of the respondents had partial adoption and complete adoption of Neem oil @ 2% at the early infestation stage of sucking pest, shoot and fruit borer respectively. About neem seed extract @ 5% for both sucking pest and shoot and fruit borer is less than half of the respondents (41.67%) had no adoption and 35.83 per cent and 22.50 per cent of respondents had partial and complete adoption respectively. Regarding release parasitoids like Trichogramma chilonis 1.5 lakh egg per ha or release of chrysoperla carnea @10000 eggs per ha for sucking pest management majority of the respondents (75.83%) had no adoption and 23.33 per cent of the respondents had partial adoption. More than half of the respondents (56.67%) had no adoption, and 41.67 per cent of respondents had partial adoption regarding use of biopesticides such as Bacillus thuringiensis. It was found that majority of respondents (65.00%) had partial adoption, and 18.33 per cent and 16.67 per cent of the respondents had no adoption, and complete adoption of Soil application of granular insecticides in nursery beds during sowing of seeds respectively. While 50.00 per cent of the respondents had no adoption, and 39.17 per cent, and 10.83 per cent of respondents hadhad complete and partial adoption of seed treatment Use of Carbendazium @3 gm/kg of seed at the time of nursery sowing or Thiamethoxam 30%WS 10 ml per kg of seeds respectively. In respect of treatment of seedlings with insecticide before planting highlighted that, more than three fourth of respondents (77.50%) had complete adoption, while 11.67 per cent and 10.83 per cent of the respondents were partial and no adoption in used of Chlorpyriphos 20%EC solution @ 10 ml per 10L water for dipping of root portion of seedling before planting in case, if Carbofuran 10 G is not applied in nursery beds respectively It was observed that 70.00 per cent of respondents had complete adoption in spraying of insecticide (management of sucking pest) and 18.33 per cent of respondents had partial adoption, and 11.67 per cent had no adoption of Application label claim insecticides after transplanting, Cypermethrin 25%EC 5ml in 1lit. of water. Whereas majority of respondents (80.00%) had complete adoption of management of shoot and fruit borer, and 13.33 per cent of respondents had partial adoption application of Azadirachtin 0.03% wsp 300 ppm, or Flubendiamide 20 WDG 7.5 gm/10 lit. Regarding economic threshold level for shoot and fruit borer less than half of respondents (47.50%) were partial adoption, and 40.00 per cent had no adoption, and very less amount of respondents (12.50%) had complete adoption of 5% shoot infestation or fruit damage per meter row length OR 10 moth catches per pheromone trap per day consecutively for three days. The findings presented in Table 2 shows that majority of respondents (61.67%) were found under medium category of adoption of integrated pest management practices, while 25.00 per cent of high level of adoption of IPM practices and 13.33 per cent of the respondents were found to low level of adoption of integrated pest management practices. This finding is in conformity with the findings of Bansod et al. (2016) [1] , Salunkhe and Chauhan (2017) [4] and Kamal et al. (2018) [2] .

Relationship of personal, socio-economic, communicational and psychological characteristics of brinjal growers with their adoption of integrated pest management practices

The relationship of personal, socio-economic, communicational and psychological characteristics of brinjal growers with their adoption of integrated pest management practices has been presented in Table 3. www.extensionjournal.com It could be seen from Table 3, that the characteristics of respondents such as education, area under brinjal cultivation, experience in brinjal cultivation, social participation, risk orientation, were positively significant at 5 per cent level of probability related to the adoption of integrated pest management practices in brinjal. Income from sources of irrigation, sources of information, economic motivation, knowledge of integrated pest management practices were positively and highly significant correlated at 1 per cent level of probability with the adoption of integrated pest management practices in brinjal. The correlation analysis revealed that age is negatively nonsignificant and land holding, annual income was nonsignificant with the adoption of integrated pest management practices in brinjal crop. This finding is similar to the findings of Bansod et al. (2016) [1] , Singh et al. (2025) [6] and Kamal et al. (2018) [2] . This finding is correlated with the findings of Kavipriya and Kumar (2021) [3] .

Constraints faced by brinjal growers in adoption of integrated pest management practices

References

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