A Study on Adoption of Integrated Pest Management Practices for Red Hairy Caterpillar, Amsacta moorei Butler in Groundnut in Rajasthan

A study was carried out in Bikaner district of Rajasthan with 180 sample sizes to find out adoption level of farmers about integrated pest management Practices against red hairy caterpillar (Amsacta moorei Butler) infesting groundnut and to ascertain the relationship between socio-psychological characteristic of farmers with their adoption level. The study revealed that about half of the respondents had medium level of adoption however, majority of farmers adopted the cultural practices such as summer deep ploughing, sanitation of fields, manual weeding, inter cropping and inter row earthing up. With regards to the practices through mechanical control reveals that majority of respondents had low level of adoption viz., use of pheromone/light traps, destruction of alternative host plants and setting up of light traps, whereas a high majority of respondent were adopting of low level of practices i.e. concentration of neem seed kernel extract, frequency of their spray preparation of neem seed extraction and with regard to insecticides of plant origin control. Similarly, in case of biological control such as use of Trichogramma sp. identifies supplementary activity fungal and Bt Formulations while about half of respondents were adopted chemical control practices of insect. The study further reveals that 17 independent variables were included in the study, out of which 11 variables were found positively and significantly related with the adoption level of IPM in groundnut that all the independent variables with could explain variation in the dependent variables adoption level of IPM in groundnut.