THE STUDY OF TECHNICAL SOURCES OF INFORMATION AS PERCEIVED BY WHEAT GROWERS IN TALUKA SHAHDADKOT

Abstract

Agriculture is the main source of income generation and poverty reduction tool in Pakistan but using traditional methods in agriculture have put it backward as compared to other nations. This research was therefore carried out with the aim to recognize technical source of information for wheat growers in taluka Shahdadkot, Sindh, province of Pakistan. For the purpose mixed method approach was applied for gathering related data, in which three in-depth interviews and survey were staged by engaging 120 respondents/farmers through random sampling method. The quantified data was analyzed involving SPSS software and manual assessment was done of qualitative data. Results showed that the preparation of the land for wheat sowing is good enough to get production appropriate (M=8.32; SD=1.64). Moreover, weedicide was preferred more than the other controlling methods in the study area having the mean (M= 7.21; SD=1.98). The majority (20.79%) of the farmers/respondents were obtaining information regarding production of the wheat crop by the pesticide workers. Besides that, utmost apprehension of the local farmers regarding problems was recorded as unavailability of the production and protection technology (M=8.10; SD=1.16), supposed to be the unavailable for the production in the study area as well as complexity originated in adoption of new variety/technologies in the proposed area. Nevertheless, some hurdles were shared with regards to the adoption of modern technologies, mainly including increased prices of inputs as well as lack of diffusion towards technical information. Thus, the researcher concludes that most of the local farmers were lacking positive attitude, financial constraints and improper awareness related to matter therefore favouring the traditional techniques for the wheat crops.