Farmers’ knowledge and practices of extension recommendations for producing and marketing prepared export pomegranate crops in Assuit governorate, Egypt

Abstract

This research aimed to (1) identifying the knowledge and implementation of pomegranate farmers about extension recommendations concerning the production and marketing of the pomegranate crop, (2) The extent to which these practices are implemented, (3) Identify the problems which face their implementation of those practices from their point of view, (4) Determining the relationship between the respondents' knowledge and implementation of good agricultural practices for the pomegranate crop and there studied characteristics. The field research was conducted on a random sample of 256 pomegranate farmers in Assiut governorate, frequencies, percentages, and the spearman rank order correlation coefficient were used for data presentation and analysis. The results indicated that the knowledge and practices of respondents were high in thirteen recommendations: varieties and plant original, fertilization, irrigation, crop protection, harvest, environmental pollution, and crop trading. While their knowledge and practices of them were medium in six recommendations: documentation, farm history and management, soil management and equipment, recycling, security and safety of workers, and storage. The results also indicated that there is a significant correlation between the respondents' knowledge and implementation of good agricultural practices and some of the studied independent variables.