Survey on Fungicide Usage Patterns and Farmer’s Willingness to Adopt Disease Management Practices in Cucurbits

Abstract

The rising use of fungicides in cucurbits are significant issue, there are insufficient data to support the various factors influencing fungicide usage pattern. In this survey, a structured questionnaire and sequential exploratory mixed design was used to gather information about marginal scale (<5 acre) cucurbits farmers along with their perception on fungicide and their knowledge towards adopting integrated disease management. Cucurbits downy mildew and powdery mildew poses major diseases and shows severe yield loss upto 42% and 34%, respectively. The results revealed that most of the farmers heavily relied on fungicide (55.71%) for management, although they were aware of the negative impacts of fungicides on human health and the environment (67.14%). In this Dimethomorp (18.57%) and Metalaxyl + Mancozeb (17.14%) was mostly used. During a cropping season, farmers (38.57%) was used fungicide frequently for 8-9 times and also adhered to less pre-harvest intervals. In this study, a data on farmers following indiscriminate and frequent use of chemical fungicide which led to disease resurgence, resistance, also encouraged to follow integrated disease management strategy and adoption to preventive measures based on forewarning advisory.