Soil Fertility Management Behaviour of the Vegetable Farmers in South-EasternRajasthan

摘要

This study examined the soil fertility management behaviour of the farmers of Bundi district of Rajasthan with respect to vegetable cultivation. Four important vegetable crops viz. tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.), peas (Pisum sativum L.), okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) and chillies (Capsicum annuum) were considered. A total of 120 farmers were selected as respondents through three stage sampling procedure. The selected respondents were interviewed personally using pre-tested well structured interview schedule. Results showed that the majority of the respondent farmers followed chemical fertiliser (100%), farmyard manure (94.2%), and crop rotation (55.8%) as soil fertility management practices. Majority of the farmers had low to medium knowledge on soil fertility status, nature and physico-chemical properties of the soils (97.5%), right choice of fertilisers (80.9%), recommended dose and quantities of fertilisers (71.5%), and time and methods of fertiliser application (75.9%). Majority of the farmers relied on neighbours (57.5%) and input dealers (47.5%) for information.