Socio-economic Correlates of Adoption of the Recommended Apple Spray Schedule in Kashmir, J&K

Apple industry is the backbone of Jammu and Kashmir economy. The production constraints of apple in the state, among others, include a complex of key and secondary insect pests and diseases. The management of those involve frequent pesticide intervention, However, a need based spray schedule comprising 6–8 essential sprays of pesticides has been formulated and being timely updated by the agricultural departments in collaboration with state agricultural university. The study was undertaken to find out the gap in adoption of recommended apple spray schedule in Ganderbal district of Kashmir. The following the simple random sampling, 100 respondents were selected from 25 villages of four blocks. The data was elicited through personal interview method. The total adoption of the recommended apple spray schedule was found to be only 26.34 per cent. The important findings of the study were; 50.00 per cent of the respondents belonged to old age group and 20 per cent of the respondents were illiterate. More than half of the respondents (51%) had small land holdings (<2.50 acres) and only 8.00 per cent had large land holdings, Moreover majority, 71.00 per cent of the respondents had no social participation, whereas most of the respondents belonged to medium categories of cosmopoliteness (43%), sources of information (72%) and innovative proneness (84%). Among the socio-economic factors it was concluded that the low literacy rate and small land holdings were obstacles towards higher adoption. Only a small number of the respondents got information and expert advice from the extension workers and a medium mass media exposure was observed which negatively affected the adoption. Out of the independent variables, age, innovative proneness and knowledge level, showed positive and significant relation with the adoption of recommended apple spray schedule.