Adoption and Marketing Practices of Tomato Growers

The present study was conduced in ten villages of Madanapalle division in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh to analyze the adoption and marketing practices of tomato growers. Six tomato growers were personally interviewed using a pre-tested schedule. It was found that majority of the tomato growers had not completely followed the practices such as: (a) seedling treatment one day after planting (Copper oxychloride @ 0.3% of 100 grams/ha) (60.00%), (b) application of neem cake (75.00%) and biofertilizers viz., Trichoderma viridae (83.33%) and Pseudomonas (80.00%), (c) pruning (91.66%) and training operations (95.00%), (c) growing of trap crops (60.00%), (d) chemical control of fruit borer (70.00%), and (e) biological control of nematodes (75.00%) and aphids and mites (60.00%). The results further revealed that due to the non-availability of neem cake, biofertilizers, and plant protection chemicals the tomato growers could not able to completely apply the recommended dose of organic manure, biofertilizers, and plant protection chemicals to the tomato crop. A vast majority of the tomato growers (96.66%) had marketed their produce at regulated cum wholesale market, while the remaining 3.34 per cent of the tomato growers had marketing their produce at retail market including modern retail outlets. Two-third (66.66%) and a majority (51.66%) of the tomato growers had consulted fellow farmers and APMCs, respectively for collecting information on marketing of tomato, while 23.33 per cent of the tomato growers consulted farm scientists for collecting information on marketing of tomato.