Vol. 11, Special Issue 8 (2022)

Author(s):
Thota Gowtham Srinivas, G Ravi, N Balakrishnan, D Lenin Raja and N Richard Kennady

Abstract:
A detailed survey was conducted to understand the farmers behavior on pesticide use and usage pattern in cucumber from Southern districts of Tamil Nadu viz., Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi, Tenkasi, Kanyakumari during the year 2021-2022 who mostly depends on insecticides as its primary pest management tool in pest management. The socio-economic status of the targeted farmers revealed that 6 per cent of farmers belong to above 50 years age group and 30 per cent of farmers belong to 20 to 30 years age group and 54 per cent of farmers belong to 30 to 40 years age group and 10 per cent of the farmers belong to 40 to 50 years age group. Vegetable crops cultivated in polyhouse conditions are susceptible to pest attack because the conditions inside are ideal for the fast reproduction of pests. Cucumber mites, thrips, beetles, whiteflies, aphids and leaf miner were found to infest the crop among cucumber mites and leaf miner is the major pest. For the management of mites and other sucking pests, concerning the use of pesticides 20 different pesticides belongs to organophosphates, synthetic pyrethroids, neonicotinoids, spinosyns, avermectins and diamides groups were utilized, either alone or in various tank mix configurations. Power sprayers are the most common type of sprayer used in our study area. Pesticide dealers are an important source of information for farmers when it comes to pesticide recommendations (61.33%).