Field trials to compare use of an IPM strategy for managing cauliflower with the “farmer's practice”, based entirely on application of pesticides (hereafter, non-IPM), were conducted on local farms in Northern India. Trials were conducted in the village of Palri, Sonipat District, in the state of Haryana, during late winter seasons from 2006 to 2007 to 2009e2010. In this village (29 150 52.9600N, 76 530 50.9800E, elevation 230 m), farmers grow cauli- flower year-around, using cultivars from different maturity groups appropriate for cultivation as rainy-season, early-rainy-season,winter-season and late-winter crops. The present study was carried out in the late-winter season (November to March) of each year.
Farmers in the village were chosen who were willing to participate in the programme and interviewed using a prepared questionnaire both before initiating the IPM program and at the end of each year. During the 2006e2007 and 2007e2008 seasons, five growers participated on their family farms, and those seasons were used as a pilot project. As the results of the pilot project were shared with growers, local confidence in IPM grew, and so a larger follow-up project was developed. A total of fifty farmers participated during the 2008e2009 and 2009e2010 seasons, with 25 farmers assigned to the IPM treatment and 25 assigned to the non-IPM treatment. Farmers were asked questions related to plant protection practices and other cultural practices that were used to raise their crop. They also were asked to provide the costs of production, which included expenditures incurred on labor for land preparation, nursery sowing, transplanting, applying fertilizer, irrigation, hoeing and weeding, pest scouting and applying pesticides, as well as the material costs for seed, pesticides, bio-control agents, trap crops, fertilizers, irrigation and transportation of their produce. IPM farmers were supplied inputs required for pest management for the entire cropping season.