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Abstract (in English)
Afghanistan is one of the countries with the highest hunger levels as per Global Huger Index 2021 ranks 103rd out of 116 countries which need additional efforts to eliminate the insecurity of food and switch towards self-sufficiency. The development of agriculture sector is mainly dependent upon the sharing of reliable information of agricultural extension workers which is necessary for agricultural production and enhancing the marketing and distributive strategies. The present study was conducted for citrus production management to support the self-sufficiency of citrus (sweet orange) in Afghanistan in the year 2023. Citrus growers were randomly selected from five villages of District Bati Kot by using proportional allocation method through pretested interview schedule in the coldest months of the year. Data were analyzed through SPSS V20 and results were presented as counts, graphs and percentages. Moreover, rank order, mean and standard deviation were used to know the extension workers’ expertise, while chi-square test was used to find the association between the different variables. The results revealed that most of the citrus growers were in the middle age of 31-50 years where 55 percent citrus growers were illiterate and 45 percent of them have formal education from primary to intermediate level. About 43.3% of citrus growers in the study area were in the joint family system of above 12 members. Majority (73.3%) citrus growers practiced intercropping in their citrus orchards, whereas 64% citrus growers have knowledge of planting density. Maximum were cultivating the variety 7007 as told by the extension workers by giving them the knowledge of improved citrus varieties as per response of 41% citrus growers. Majority (61%) citrus growers revealed about the availability of extension services. Overwhelming majority sold their citrus fruits through middle man due to no marketing awareness. The ranking skills of extension workers as perceived by citrus growers in picking was the forecasting maturity and yield was on top with mean value 3.47 and standard deviation 1.099 while, in post picking, knowledge of post-harvest losses was on top priority with mean value 2.77 and standard deviation 1.11. The highly signification association was found between the age and literacy status with average yield along with picking of citrus production. Extending workers may be trained in collecting and processing of citrus fruits and understanding of post-harvest losses during marketing through various training sessions who in turn will train citrus growers to sell their products directly by not involving middleman and control the post-harvest losses by improving their socio economic status along with increasing their interest in citrus production to bring sell-sufficiency in citrus fruit for battering the economy of Afghanistan.