International Journal of Horticulture, 2024, Vol.14, No.4, 223-236 http://hortherbpublisher.com/index.php/ijh 224 insecticides, and various cultural methods to protect the crops, despite that none of the methods showing the significant solution of problems. Leaf miner is the invasive pest causing the destructive damage either directly by reducing yield or indirectly by reducing the quality of produce or consumer preferences and export. From the year of invasion, it is causing devastating damage in tomato farms of Lalitpur (Lamsal et al., 2018). Though various efforts made by farmers and pesticide management and quarantine centre for controlling leaf miner infestation by using traps, Integrated Pest Management (IPM) methods and insecticides, the result is not so encouraging. Farmers mostly use the pesticides, but they lack the knowledge about proper way of application and major time in which application is effective. Various research has been done to find out the measures to reduce the damage but most of them lacks to assess which method is most effective. So, this study will help to identify which method is most effective to check the population of the Leaf miners for effective management with the major period of infestation. 2 Materials and Methods 2.1 Experimental site and sub-sector The research was conducted in Lele VDC of Lalitpur district, which falls under Bagmati province. It covers five wards 2, 5, 6, 10 and 11 of Godawari municipality, assigned under the PMAMP vegetable zone of Lalitpur district. Lalitpur lies within 1,324 m at lower elevation to the 2,300 m at the higher elevation from sea level. 2.2 Preliminary field visit For the collection of information regarding the social structure, demographic features, topographical features and field condition, preliminary visit was done in the experimental site. The information collected was the basis for the preparation of questionnaire, sampling design and application of sampling techniques. 2.3 Sample and sampling techniques The sampling frame was designed through the profile of farmers of Godawari municipality ward number 2, 5, 6, 10 and 11 of Lalitpur district. 70 households were drawn by using a disproportionate simple random sampling technique from the sampling frame. 2.4 Research instrument/design 2.4.1 Pre testing The questionnaire was pre-tested prior to administering to the actual respondents for checking the reliability and validity of questionnaire. The pre-testing was done on 10 percent respondent near to study area. The correction was made in the final questionnaire format. 2.4.2 Household survey Total 70 individual households were face to face contacted and interviewed through a semi-structured questionnaire including information, knowledge, experience and perception of Tuta absoluta, its prevalence status and management practices. Age group above 25 years will be in priority as they are likely to be more experience. 2.4.3 Key informant interview To develop further idea of the study site, informal discussion and interview with key informant was done. 15 Key Information Interview was done with the progressive farmers, Zone officer and other beneficiaries to obtain key information. For this a separate checklist will be used. 2.4.4 Field observation Field was observed frequently to verify every collected data from household survey and KII. 2.5 Data and data type 2.5.1 Primary data Primary data was collected from the farmers of experimental site, who have been experiencing the problem of T. absoluta.
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