Journal
ECOSPHERE
Volume 12, Issue 10, Pages -Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.3812
Keywords
integrated pest management; Pakistan; pesticides; structural equation model; vegetables
Categories
Funding
- Fulbright Scholarship
- Commonwealth Scholarship Commission
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The study found that the intention of Pakistani farmers to adopt integrated pest management practices in vegetable production is low due to their reliance on pesticides for pest control and lack of awareness of the efficacy of non-chemical control measures.
Integrated pest management adoption is quite low around the globe, particularly in developing countries, due to different factors. Here, we examine the factors affecting the intention of Pakistani farmers to adopt integrated pest management practices in vegetable production using a structured questionnaire. We interviewed 301 vegetable growers in Multan, Pakistan. The reliability and validity of the data, along with the underlying relationship between the observed variables, were identified through exploratory factor analysis. The majority of the farmers (79.4%) relied on pesticides for pest control. More than four out of 10 of the respondents (43.8%) reported that okra received the highest application of pesticides followed by potato (24.5%) and cauliflower (17.9%). Integrated pest management was currently non-existent among the vegetable growers of the study area. The latent factors-knowledge of the adverse effects of pesticide, belief in the efficacy of non-chemical pest control measures, perceived barriers to the adoption of integrated pest management, progressive farming approach, and intention to adopt integrated pest management-were subsequently confirmed using confirmatory factor analysis. The structural equation model suggested that the intention to adopt integrated pest management is significantly affected by farmers' knowledge of the adverse effects of pesticides (beta = 0.274, z-value = 3.082, P = 0.002). An increase in farmers' awareness of the harmful effects of pesticides could lead to integrated pest management adoption for pest control. The scale for intention to adopt integrated pest management developed in this study can be used in future studies and provide valuable insights to the policymakers for devising integrated pest management adoption campaigns in the study area.
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