Potato Growers Needs for Information on the Varieties and Fertilizers in Kafr Al-Zayat District in Al-Gharbia Governorate, Egypt

Abstract

The research aimed to identify the level of information need of the respondents with regard to the technical recommendations for potato crop varieties, as well as for fertilizing the potato crop, and to determine the relationship between the degree of information need, of technical recommendations for potato crop varieties, for fertilizing the potato crop, each as a dependent variable and all the independent variables studied. Other aims included identifying the sources from which respondents derive their information about the potato crop, to identify the problems encountered by the respondents concerning the varieties and fertilization of the potato crop. This research was conducted in three villages randomly selected from 35 villages in Kafr Al-Zayat district in Al-Gharbia Governorate, namely, Qasta, Abeg and Al-Dalgamon, the sample size was 115 farmers. The data collection tool is an interview schedule, it was used to collect data during March 2019. Descriptive statistics frequency were used for presenting and analyzing the findings, along with, percentages, range, arithmetic average, standard deviation, chi- square test of independence, and Pearson's simple correlation coefficient. The main findings indicate that: 71.3% of the respondents were of moderate levels of information need of the technical recommendations for potato crop varieties; 69.6% of the respondents were of moderate information need of technical recommendations for fertilizing the potato crop. Furthermore, correlation relationships of varieties lurks in a statistically significant relationship at the probability level of 0.01 between the degree of respondents information need for technical recommendations for potato crop varieties and the degree of education of the respondents as well as correlation relations for fertilization was shown in a statistically significant relationship at the probability level of 0.01 between the degree of respondents information need of technical recommendations for fertilizing the potato crop and between the degree of education of respondents, and the average productivity of the potato crop.