Pesticide Application Behavior of Farmers in Apple Production System in South Kashmir of Jammu and Kashmir State

The present study was conducted to assess the pesticide application behavior of farmers with respect to apple production system in Southern region of Kashmir valley. A total of 500 farmers were selected as respondents throughout the four districts of South Kashmir through four stage sampling procedure. The selected respondents were interviewed personally using a pre-tested well structured questionnaire. The results revealed that almost all the farmers were dependant on chemical pesticides for the management of diseases and insect pests but had a preliminary knowledge about them and knew the pesticides only by their trade names without their active ingredients and mode of action. The most frequently used were fungicides followed by insecticides and acaricides. The majority of farmers followed a calendar based spray schedule based on the different phenological stages of apple and sprayed different fungicides and insecticides and partially taking into consideration the recommended spray schedule. However, the farmers were observed to rotate different fungicides in each spray. The data revealed that majority of the farmers were dependant mostly on input dealers followed by extension personnel and progressive farmers for their need of technological information on various aspects of pesticide use.