Farmer's Knowledge, Perception and Management Practices of Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Virus Disease in Dumuria Upazila

Abstract

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is a popular vegetable crop in Bangladesh as well as many countries in the world. Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV) is infamous for tomato-infecting viruses and causes a huge loss of the yield irrespective of the knowledge, perception and management practices of fanners. So, in order to find out the relationship between farmers knowledge, perception and management practices on TYLCV disease of tomato and their socioeconomic characteristics, a study was carried out. The study was conducted at three villages under Dumuria upazila of Khulna district. The sample population was 87 randomly selected from 3 villages. Among the 10 selected characteristics of the respondents' farm size, annual family income, organizational participation, extension media contact and fraining exposure of the respondents showed a significant positive relationship with their knowledge on TYLCV disease. Extension media contact showed a significant posifve relationship with the perception of the respondents on the disease. 42.5% of the respondents were middle aged, 43.7% of the tomato cultivators had primary level of education, 47.1% of them had medium sized family, 86.7% of the firmers had small sized farm, 39.1% of them were short experienced, 50.6% of them had low experience in tomato cultivation, 50.6% of the farmers had medium income, 73.6% had low level of organizational participation, 54% had medium scale extension media contact, 39.1% of the farmers belongs to low fraining exposure category. Most of the farmers (55.2%) had medium knowledge, 57.5% of the farmers had moderately clear perception and majority (84.8%) of the farmers followed medium management practices on TYLCV disease. Perception on chemical confrol to conü•ol insect vector ranked I st, among all the management practices maintaining proper sanitization during intercultural operation ranked F. The result of the study reveals that most of the fanners solely dependent on chemical confrol rather than following any biological or indigenous (Spreading ashes/Spray of neem water,etc.) methods; due to their lack of knowledge and unclear perception of TYLCV disease.