Adoption Constraints of Improved Technologies Regarding Tomato Cultivation in District Mardan, KP

The present study was conducted in district Mardan of Khyber Pukhtunkhawa (KP) to analyze constrains in the adoption of improved technologies regarding tomato cultivation in March-April 2016. Two union councils Fatima and Babeni from tehsil Mardan were selected purposively based on tomato cultivation. Two villages were randomly selected from each union council. All tomato growers given training by the extension department were selected for interview, thus 104 respondents were interviewed for the study through well-structured interview schedule. Paired t-test was used for the comparison before and after training. The results show that 43% of the respondents were young, literate (85%), owner cultivator (49%), majority (81%) have total tomato cultivated area between 1-3 acres. Training was given to all the farmers, results of t-test showed that after getting training; tomato yield, income, total cost of seed, weeding, and pesticides were increased, while seed rate gm per acre was decreased. It is concluded that all the respondents adopted HYVs. Major constrains in the adoption of extension recommendations were high price of agricultural inputs, non-availability of; cold storage, agricultural credit and certified vegetable seeds, lack of fertilizers and technical knowledge, pest and diseases incidence, improper marketing of produce in the study area.