A study of the application of biopesticide among farmers in the Malaysian vegetables industry
Nitty Hirawaty Kamarulzaman, Salini Devi Rajendran
Abstracts of 7th International Postharvest Symposium 2012 (IPS2012). 25-29 June, 2012. Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 238 pages.
2012
บทคัดย่อ
Biopesticide is one of the environmentally friendly methods in controlling pests and diseases in vegetable farms and it is a potential approach for sustainable agriculture. Today, more chemical fIrms are actively moving towards promoting their products and farmers are influenced by the benefits of the usage of chemical pesticides. Farmers' unawareness of the advantages that biopesticide may offer will lead to the reduction in demand and its usage in the future. There is an urgent need for more communication between the farmers, researchers and industry players to increase the usage and their awareness towards biopesticides. This progression is likely to continue as biopesticide is in its early stage of development. The objectives of this study are to investigate the level of awareness among vegetables farmers on biopesticide and to examine factors that influence the farmers towards the application ofbiopesticide in the industry. A quantitative survey was conducted to collect data from 138 vegetables farmers in Negeri Sembilan. Data were analyzed using statistical analyses such as descriptive analysis, chi-square test, and factor analysis. The results revealed that majority of the farmers were aware and had applied biopesticide in their farms. Factors such as quality, awareness, price and effectiveness were found to influence the farmers to apply biopesticide.