Impact of Vegetable Integrated Pest Management Farmer Field School Programme in Sub-Tropical Region of Jammu and Kashmir

A field study was conducted to evaluate the impact of vegetable Integrated Pest Management-farmer Field School (IPM-FFS) Programme in the sub-tropical Jammuregion of the state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). Ex-post facto with-without research design was employed to for conducting the impact evaluation. A sample of 80 IPM-trained and 60 non-IPM farmers were selected for the study. IPM practices namely raised nursery beds in cabbage (p=0.026), timely transplantation of cauliflower (p=0.034), collection of eggs and egg masses of insect pests (p=0.048) were adopted by significant proportion of IPM trained farmers. A logistic regression model was fitted which showed IPM training programme impacted adoption of IPM practices namely deep ploughing and collection of insect pest eggs and egg masses. IPM training did not influence adoption of other cultural and mechanical practices. IPM trained farmers decision of pesticide use was not influenced by IPM training.