Constraints in Adoption of Recommended Practices of Vegetable Crops

Cultivation of vegetables and fruits is now becoming a viable commercial proposition. With the introduction of liberal trade policies, prospects for export of fruits and vegetables have improved. Vegetables provide a good source of income to the growers and play an important part in human nutrition. But still, there is a wide gap between current production and potential productivity, in this view a study was undertaken to find out the constraints faced by the farmers in the adoption of the recommended farm practices of major vegetable crops. Four major vegetable crops, i.e., potato, tomato, peas and cauliflower and four farm practices viz., Improved seeds, fertilizer applications, plant protection measures and storage and marketing were selected for the study. A random sample of 160 respondents was taken from two purposively selected districts of Punjab. The study reveal that high cost of chemicals, non-availability of disease free seeds, non-availability of chemicals, lack of labour, lack of time, lack of technical knowledge, financial problem, poor shelf life, inadequate supply of storage material, lack of marketing facilities, less support price and price fluctuation were the main constraints encountered by the vegetable growers in the adoption of recommended farm practices of major vegetable crops.