Assessing the Adoption of Good Agricultural Practices in Muskmelon Production in Chaung Oo Township, Myanmar

Abstract

Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) in Myanmar has not yet successfully implemented all around the country, but some farmers and large farm owners now start adopting GAP for fruits production. Data were collected from a total of 105 respondents by suing semi structured questionnaires. This study revealed that muskmelon farmers’ understanding and awareness on GAP was at a good level but the adoption rate on GAP was still weak. The highest adoption rate was found in the group that followed 10 to 13 out of the 16 recommended guidelines, while the moderate adoption rate was observed in the group that followed 6 to 9 guidelines. The least adoption rate was observed in the group that only followed 3 to 5 guidelines. The adoption of recommended GAP guidelines on muskmelon production was observed positively related with education level of the respondents, farm size, market condition, and extension services for GAP. The difficulty of some GAP guidelines and market condition for GAP products influenced farmers’ perception on the adoption of GAP and the change of farmers’ GAP understanding in the study area. This study also highlight that highly adopting group and moderately adopting group got higher price than less adopting group.