Knowledge of farmers about the practices of controlling the red palm weevil in Luxor governorate, Egypt

This research was conducted to identify the researched farmers' knowledge of the red palm weevil control practices, the sources from which the surveyed farmers derive their information about the red palm weevil control, and the problems they faced in controlling the red palm weevil in Luxor Governorate. This research was conducted on a simple random sample of 216 respondents from the surveyed farmers. Data were collected from the search area during the month of March 2020 through a personal interview with the farmers in their fields and homes, and the data were statistically analyzed using the Kandal rank correlation factor, using the SPSS group. Computer social science statistics, and the EXEL program, to test research hypotheses, and using tables of frequencies and percentages. The results indicate that nearly half of the surveyed farmers (44.4%) fall in the age group of 49-62 years, and that more than one fifth of the respondents (20.8%) are illiterate, and the majority of the surveyed farmers (52%) have previous years of experience ranging from 16 to 30 years.  in controlling the palm weevil, as it was found that nearly three quarters of the surveyed farmers (73.6%) possessed four fruitful palms or less, and their classification is (unknown) my country, and a percentage (77.7%) of the surveyed farmers possessed nine non-fruitful palms or less. And that the vast majority (91.6%) of the surveyed farmers burn palm trees infected with red palm weevil, thinking it is beneficial, and this practice is not among the control practices.  It was found that (100%) of the surveyed farmers obtain their agricultural information through personal experiences on a permanent basis, and family, friends and neighbors by (56.9%) on a permanent basis, then comes in importance after that each of the production input dealers at a rate of (88.8%) Sometimes, while the agricultural guide ranks fourth at a rate (81.4%) sometimes. It was found that the level of knowledge of the surveyed farmers was low by (34.3%), while the majority of the surveyed farmers had a medium level of knowledge at a rate of (58.8%), and that the level of knowledge of the surveyed farmers was modestly high (6.9%) regarding the practices of controlling the red palm weevil. The results showed that there are seven problems facing farmers in the fight against the red palm weevil, foremost of which is the problem of officials’ lack of interest in educating farmers, and the farmers themselves’ reluctance to search for solutions. Then came the problem of farmers ’lack of ownership of date palms. As for the relationships, it was found that there is a direct significant correlation between the cognitive level of the surveyed farmers with: the educational level variable, where the value of the calculated Kendall correlation coefficient reached (0.229**) at the level of significance 0.01%, and the value of the calculated Kendall correlation coefficient (0.115*) At the level of significance 0.05 for the variable of possession of palm trees, and there is no correlation with the rest of the variables, which were age, and the number of years of previous experience.