Impact of Integrated Pest Management Technology Input and Yield Disparities on Cotton Crop in Vidarbha Region of Maharashtra: Principal Component Approach

Cotton is a significant crop that is farmed commercially, mostly in the Vidarbha region. It is planted with a focus on controlling insects and pests. In light of this notion, a study was conducted with the primary objectives of ascertaining the degree of adoption of recommended technology in cotton production, analyzing cotton's input utilization at different IPM adoption levels, and estimating the input and yield gap of cotton at different IPM adoption levels. The current study was conducted in the districts of Akola and Buldhana in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra State, India. The primary data, which cover the years 2022–2023, were gathered using a straight forward random sample technique. Out of the 120 farmers which were surveyed for IPM adoption technology, 19 were classified as high adopters, meaning their percentage of technology adoption was above 78.11; 79 were classified as medium adopters, meaning their percentage of technology adoption was between 63.35 and 78.11; and 22 were classified as low adopters, meaning their percentage was below 63.34 percentage. The group with a high adoption level used the greatest amount of human labor as a result of input utilization. The highest use of farmyard manure is seen in the high adopter group (30.68 quintals per hectare), which is followed by the medium and low adopter groups (16.80 quintals per hectare and 14.05 quintals per hectare). With a yield per hectare of 16.64 quintals, the high adopter group had the highest yield, followed by the medium adopter group at 14.01 quintals, and the low adopter group at 12.71 quintals. In comparison to the yield gap in the low adopter group, a total of 2.29 quintals yield per hectare was discovered in the medium adopter group, 0.99 quintals per hectare in the high adopter group, and 1.64 quintals per hectare in the low adopter group. Thus, it was observed and proposed that the group with a high adoption level had the highest degree of adoption across all technologies as a result of this experiment. Moreover, there was very little use of trichograma, FYM, light, Pheroman, and yellow sticky traps among low adopter groups.