Impact of Training Approaches to Reduce Knowledge and Skills Gap in Cotton Crop: A Case Study Taluka

Cotton is important fiber crop which is used to grow for commercially purpose. It’s growing all over the world, like India, USA, Russia, China, Brazil, Pakistan, Egypt, Turkey, and Sudan etc. Cotton is cash crop and Pakistan known as ‘white gold’, cotton contributes 23.60 percent of value added and 4.45 of the total GDP of the country (GoP, 2021). Two third exports earning of the country are from the cotton made-up and textiles, it add $2.5 in national economy while country textile mills and ginning factories are also depends on cotton (Rani et al., 2017). Study objectives Identify and compare the training methods for cotton production perceived by cotton farmers, determine the effectiveness of various training methods on cotton farmers' knowledge and skills & Identify barriers to applying knowledge and skills by farmers. Total sample size were 100 cotton growers purposely were selected from study area. Data collection were collected through well design research questionnaire and data analyzed through (SPSS) statistical software. It was observed that overall training program had very positive impact on farmer’s knowledge and skills because farmers became aware about filed issue and they started practical work their field to get maximum yield from cotton crop. Public organization may be need for improvement for facilitation and capacity building of famers. Farmers awareness session increase their knowledge and work for more production.


Introduction
Cotton is important fiber crop which is used to grow for commercially purpose.It's growing all over the world, like India, USA, Russia, China, Brazil, Pakistan, Egypt, Tur-key, and Sudan etc. Cotton is cash crop in Pakistan its known as 'white gold' cotton contributes 23.60 percent of value added and 4.45 of the total GDP of the country (GoP, 2021).Two third exports earning of the country are from the cotton made-up and textiles, it add 2.5$ to national economy while in the country textile mills and ginning factories are also depends on cotton (Rani et al., 2017).Pakistan is 4th largest producer of the cotton overall the world with average production of 1610 thousands metric ton (ZEITIR, 2019) unjab produce 85% of cotton in Pakistan and Sindh produce 15% of cotton of the country (Shuli, et al., 2018).After India and china Pakistan has 3rd largest spinning capacity in Asia (Staafgard & McClay 2018).In 2017-18 cotton crop production was 11.935 million bales which increased 11.8% from last year production, 10.671 million bales cotton production were recorded on same period of last year.In year 2016-17cotton crop was cultivated on an area of 2489 thousands hectares, compare of last year in 2017-18 cultivation of cotton crop increased till 8.4% cotton crop was cultivated on an area 2,699 thousands hectares in year 2017-18.This production of cotton increased because of better economics returns received during last year, government also promoted cotton crop through different campaigns, and inputs were also available on subsidized rate (GoP, 2018).Pakistan Bureau of Statistics has reported that in the past 10 years cotton production has almost halved from 13.6 million bales in 2011/12 to about 7 million in 2020/21.The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has also reported that the crop area of cotton has significantly reduced to 2.2 million hectares, the lowest since FY82 (Imran, 2022).In Pakistan farmers are getting good cotton crop yield but they are not focusing on the quality control standard of cotton.Cotton is unclassified guarding because of some reasons, a) farmers picking cotton improperly, b) use pesticide in extra quantity, c) pesticide residues, d) no proper timing of irrigation, and e) improper way of picking cotton, all these factors affecting on the price of cotton, to fill up this gap farmers need good quality of training approaches which help farmers to improve their skills and farmers will also improve their knowledge about new techniques used in Agriculture (Antwi-Agyej & Stringer 2021) many reasons behind agricultural production, almost 85 to 90% farmers have very small land (Raza, 2017) they are facing financial problem, so most of them they cannot purchase inputs timely and proper knowledge of crop and weather is also factor for less production, .So government must bring changes in their extension services and focus on small farmers (Raza, et al., 2016).Rural women in Pakistan are playing very important role in agriculture.They are participate activities which are related to Crop production and Livestock management.Rural women are often busy in Agricultural practices like pre harvest and post-harvest and live-stock management from sun rise to sun set.Their participation in agriculture is spread over wide range but not highly mentioned due to insufficient data to show their important in various agriculture activities.National commission must established any formal way which expose the participation of rural women at national and international level, and also established women training wings which will be supervised by district level officers, who work to train the rural women on different aspects of crop and Livestock production, so that women take part in the betterment of country economy (Afrad et al., 2019).Farmers had very low knowledge about the mustard production technology, mainly they were unaware about plant protection practices, how much and how to use fertilizer and how to prepare the field for the cultivation of crop (Rahaman, et al., 2018).So it was needed that start farmers training programs to improve their field knowledge about crop production and other all activities which will improve the yield of mustard farmers (Pandey, et al., 2015).From 2000to 2004Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO, 2021) (Van Den Burg, 2020) The main purpose of his project was to control on pest through different strategies, and replace the through other environment friendly cotton production practices.Farmers urged to hold training section on integrated farming system, integrated pest management.And provide them different techniques through which they protect their soil and conserve the water on large scale, while the training demand on nursery management were on top in horticulture field, the demand to provide knowledge to the farmers on the raring of piggery was high in animal sciences.Rural women also expressed to train them on the value addition with the support of it the increase the house income and change their family living standard (Sajeev, et al., 2012).Almost 55% respondents are getting information about their field from different deal-ers and sealers in different part of the Bangladesh.Farmers want training programs on inte-grated pest management, train farmers about the better use of irrigation water and the way through they can conserve the irrigation water, to make farers aware about the use of bio-control of different pests, farmers also demanded to train them about the marketing and transporting system.So its need to organize training programs on those areas through which farmers improve their skill and farm production (Rahman, et al., 2018).

Material and Methods
Sampling procedure: This study was conducted in 5 union councils of taluka Sinjhoro.Purpose of this study was to analysis the impact of training approaches to reduce knowledge and skill gap of cotton farmer in taluka Sinjhoro.

Population of the study:
The main target of this study of cotton farmers who had received any cotton training programs from any organizations.Sampling procedure: The data were collected from 100 cotton farmers who participated in different training programs.Random sampling technique was used to conduct this study, five union councils were purposively selected from out of 12 union councils of Taluka Sinjhoro district Sanghar  Before collection of data farmers took in confidence that this data will be used for their betterment.Data analysis: After the compilation of data collection procedure, the collected data were analyzed in Statistical package for social sciences (SPSS), Mean, frequency, percentage, scale rating and others.

Result and Discussion
In this section of the research we described the results of different characteristics.The present study was carried out to analysis the impact of training approaches to reduce knowledge and skill gap of cotton farmer in Taluka Sinjhoro district Sanghar.Land tenure system: In technology adoption process in agriculture, the land tenure is also considered as an important factor to influence the decision making and adoption process.The owner farmers who are independent in decision making may adopt improved practices more easily as compared to tenants who are not sure to adopt improved farm operations because of risk factor.Table -4 shows the information regarding the type of tenure such owner, tenant and owner cum tenan.In Table .1 indicate that farming tenure were highlighted and it shows that majority of 46% farmers were owner they had their own land, while 36% were owner cum tenant and 18% growers were tenant.Farmer were categories in three category small 12.5 acres was 67 percent major portion, while medium farmers were 24 percent and large category only 6 percent of farmers were observed in study area.

Area under cotton crop cultivation:
Cotton is important cash crop of the Pakistan and in studied area majority of the farmers grow cotton crop.The purpose behind to collected the information regarding area under Cultivation was to be aware the situation of studied area that how many acres a farmer was cultivating the cotton crop.

Table. 2: Farmers distribution on the basis of area under cotton crop cultivation Area under cotton cultivation Frequency Percentage
Up to 12.5 (Small) 66 66.00 12.5 to 25 (Medium) 18 18.00 25 and above (Large) 16 16.00Total 100 100.00 Table. 2 shows that majority of 66 percent farmers cultivated cotton crop up to 12.5 acres, while 12.5 to 25 acres cultivated 18 percent cotton crop.Further 25 and above farmers cultivated 16 percent cotton crop in their field respectively.

Conclusion
This study concluded that public extension workers were not contacted with farmers properly, while field facilitator of private extension and NGOs active their facilitation for farmers regarding arranged training program for farmers.Farm visit, demonstration, meetings, group discussion, tour and field trips and field days training methods were arranged for capacity building of farmers.While mass media tools such as television, radio magazine and printed materials given by private organization It was observed that overall training program had very Positive impact on farmer's knowledge and skills because farmers became aware about filed issue and they started practical work their field to get maximum yield from cotton crop.Farmers awareness session increase their knowledge and also provided platform for betterment of famers.

Recommendations / Suggestions
• Government may could jointly work with private organization for the capacity building of farmers • Demonstration plots established in each area of Sindh province for the betterment of farmers • Input prices should decrease and easily .

Figure- 1 :
Figure-1: Data collection strategy Development of Questionnaire: The questionnaire was developed with the help of supervisor committee and other field experts.That questionnaire covers some information such as Educational level of farmers, farming experience, which training methods were used and what are the effectives training methods are among them, after development of questionnaire data were collected Data collection: Data were collected only form those farmers who ever received cotton training by Public and Non-governmental-organizations.Before collection of data farmers took in confidence that this data will be used for their betterment.Data analysis: After the compilation of data collection procedure, the collected data were analyzed in Statistical package for social sciences (SPSS), Mean, frequency, percentage, scale rating of United State was supporting Farmers field school project on IPM training program in different countries of Asia.

Table - 10: Farmers training effectiveness through mass media tools
Proper marketing was moderate level, while Faraway location of market from village.Lack of warehouses were to some level barriers for th Scale 1= Not at all, 2= Satisfactory, 3= Moderate, 4= Effective, 5= Very effective This table.10shows that Mass media (print media and electronic media) tools such as pamphlets, journals, radio, televisions, and videos were not at all effective training methods for the farmers.

Table . 14: Farmers faced problems regarding technical aspects of crops
Scale 1= Not at all, 2= to some level, 3= Moderate level, 4=Serious level, 5= very serious level Table.14.Growers were asked regarding barriers related to technical aspects, farmers said that financial constraints, high cost of labor charges, high cost of fertilizer, high cost of seed and agro chemical were very serious level barriers whereas Lack of technical guidance of application of pesticide was serious level barrier and lack of knowledge about banking system credit facility were to some level for them