Assessing awareness among cotton growers about the IPM in Punjab, Pakistan: exploring the role of Pest Warning and Quality Control of Pesticides (PW&QCP) Department

Abstract

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is deemed a practical approach to controlling insect pest infestation in cotton crop. This study explored the cotton grower’s awareness of the IPM activities with particular reference to the role of field staff from the Pest Warning and Quality Control of Pesticides (PW&QCP) department, Punjab. A total of 192 purposively chosen cotton growers from two districts, Multan and Dera Ghazi Khan, were interviewed face-to-face using a structured interview schedule. Using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), frequency, percentages, mean, standard deviation, and range were calculated along with correlation and regression to explore the relationship between variables. Results revealed that the mean age of respondents was 43.86 years, education was 4.34 years, land was 9.90 acres, and farming experience was 27.23 years. Around 66% were landowners, and for 73.4%, crop farming was the key income source. Majority (87.5%) had awareness about pest scouting, 69.3% about intercropping, whereas 35.9% were aware of biological control agents, referring to poor awareness of biological control. The grand mean of farmers' attitudes and perceived usefulness of provided services were 3.47 and 3.43, respectively, implying that both were rated moderately. An attitude was statistically significantly correlated with the awareness of IPM activities (P<0.05) and the usefulness of services (P<0.05). Binary regression showed that attitude and perceived usefulness had a statistically significant (P<0.05) impact on the farmers' awareness. The study concludes that the attitude of farmers was key in the context of the usefulness of IPM activities. The field staff of PW&QCP can organize trainings and workshops for the farmers to shape their positive attitude towards biological control.