International Journal of Horticulture, 2024, Vol.14, No.1, 18-30 http://hortherbpublisher.com/index.php/ijh 22 1.6.3 GAP Adoption The adoption of GAP in the research site was appraised for the Nepal GAP scheme and its standards. The study sought the application of GAP standards in three phases; early, moderate, and not practiced, related to the mentioned five GAP modules in the scheme (Nepal GAP Scheme, 2020). 2 Results and Discussion 2.1 Land distribution (ha) and tree population The results showed that the average land holding size of farmers was 0.5 ha, out of which Mandarin shares 0.38 ha (Table 2). The minimum area used for mandarin cultivation was 0.05 ha while the maximum was up to 1.5 ha. The average number of mandarin trees was 346 and, it was found that 56.67% of the total trees in the orchard were bearing fruit. Table 2 Land use distribution in the survey area, 2022 Description Average Minimum Maximum Standard deviation Landholding size 0.5 0.1 2.1 0.38 Mandarin cultivation area Total trees 0.38 346.08 0.05 37 1.5 3200 0.32 443.71 Source: Field Survey, 2022 2.2 Household size and involvement in agriculture The average number of family members per household was 5 while only two members were involved in the agriculture sector (Table 3). Table 3 Household size and involvement in agriculture in the survey area, 2022 Description N Range Minimum Maximum Mean Std. deviation Household size 98 16 1 17 5.05 2.281 Number of family members in agriculture 98 3 1 4 2.04 0.872 Source: Field Survey, 2022 2.3 Status of GAP Awareness 2.3.1 Awareness scenario of the respondents About (56.1%) of the respondents were partially aware, (21.4%) fully aware, and (22.4%) were unaware of GAPs in the study site (Figure 1). Most of the farmers have access to the idea of GAP through the Mandarin superzone. Figure 1 Percentage of respondents having awareness of GAP in the survey area, 2022 (Source: Field survey, 2022) 2.3.2 Socio-economic variables of the respondents Out of the 98 respondents, many were males. About 45 respondents were partially aware of GAP while 12 were unaware of it and only 11 respondents among females were partially known. Different ethnic groups were observed in the area, Brahmin share the higher proportion (37), followed by Chhetri (18) and Dalits were the least
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