International Journal of Development and Sustainability (Sep 2012)
Impact of FFS on farmer's adoption of IPM options for tomato: A case study from the Gezira State, Sudan
Abstract
In Sudan pests and diseases are the major problem of vegetables production. Tomato crop is considered as the most important vegetable crop in the country according to its economic and nutrition value. There are many pest and diseases retarding tomato production such as whitefly, American bollworm, TYLCV and powdery mildew. Therefore some IPM options for tomato and onion were validated in FFS in order to help farmers in controlling the most important pests and diseases. The main objective of this study was to determine the impact of FFS on farmer's adoption of IPM options for tomato in the Gezira State, Sudan. Field survey was used to collect data from three Farmer Field Schools in the Gezira State namely: Um Dagarsi, Hantoub and Faris in the 2009/2010 growing season. All FFS participants were used, i.e. 30 FFS- participants from each school. Equal number of non-FFS participants (90) was used for comparison, by using the simple random sampling technique. The collected data were statistically analyzed and interpreted using percentage, frequency distribution and chi-square test. The results showed that the FFS schools were positively affected farmer's adoption of IPM options for tomato. It can be concluded that the FFS approach is very efficient in the transfer of farm technology for vegetable farmers through their participation in various activities of FFS schools. Thus, FFS approach must become national policy, share authority of extension organizations in control and execution of FFS activities with farmer unions for more effective participations of clientele in all activities of the schools and More efforts should be exerted in distribution of all inputs to farmers with reasonable prices through various agricultural centres.
