Impact of IPM Technology on Yield, Economics and Pesticide Use in Cotton by KVKs of Madhya Pradesh

Abstract

Cotton plays a key role in the national economy in terms employment and income genera-tion in the agricultural and industrial sectors. It is an important cash crop in the Madhya Pradesh. Madhya Pradesh, a part of the central zone (Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat), occupying more than 67.23% of the total area and contributes around 62.11% to the total production and is characterized by rampant proliferation of hybrids. Bt technology has been extensively adopted in this region. Increas-ing trend has been observed in the area, from 11.78 ha in 2004-05 to 18.54 ha in 2011-12 and production of 16.00 lakh bales to 17.0 lakh bales. However, produc- tivity has been declined from 472 kg cotton lint/ha in 2004-05 to 426 kg cotton lint/ha in 2011-12. This af-fects the farmers’ returns from the cotton cultivation.

Though IPM has been developed long back but its field application and adoption rate was low with the cotton farmers. After studying the cotton pest man-agement constraints, large-scale contagious cotton growing tract was selected for the IPM demonstration and implemented in the selected districts of Madhya Pradesh. Frontline demonstrations were planned and implemented mainly to diffuse and influence the practices of IPM technology on yield, costof plant protection and frequency of pesticides sprays has been developer. The present study is an attempt to investigate the cotton IPM technology effective in yield enhancement vis-à-vis reduction of the cost and pesticide application both in Bt and non-Bt cotton in the Madhya Pradesh.