Vegetable production in peri-urban areas-documenting the evidences from Punjab, Pakistan
Paper Details
Vegetable production in peri-urban areas-documenting the evidences from Punjab, Pakistan
Abstract
Vegetables are the important part of our food, essential for maintaining health. Vegetable consumption has shown increasing trend, however, per capita intake is still below the recommended level of World Health Organization (WHO). Due to their perishability, vegetable commodities have received greater attention and in developing world they are produced closer to their consumption area. Vegetable production has thus become concentrated in peri-urban zones in Asia. Vegetable production in Pakistan is very low because the research institutes and researchers have given it low priority and it has been inadequately addressed. Vegetable production can be enhanced by imparting training to the vegetable growers in specific areas enabling them to increase their net income. A well-structured interview schedule was designed to collect data from randomly selected208 vegetable growers, growing the major vegetables i.e. cauliflower, turnip and radish. The collected data were analyzed with the help of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) to derive conclusions and formulate recommendations. Awareness was found less in all types of selected vegetables for fertilizer application followed by insect/pest/disease identification and management. The prominent information gap areas in turnip production were fertilizer application, seed rate and insect/pest/disease management falling in high and medium category. On the basis of research findings it was recommended that research departments should develop insect/pest/disease resistant varieties in order to get potential production of turnip in peri-urban areas.
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