**5. Impacts of off-season tomato cultivation**

The off-season tomato growers received significantly higher income compared to non-growers (winter season growers) based on nearest neighbor, radius, and kernel matching (**Table 1**). This may be due to higher productivity and market price. Ali et al. [20] also indicated that off-season tomato cultivation is profitable. The ATT values were found to be Tk. 261,000, 253,000, and 261,000 based on nearest neighbor, radius, and kernel matching, respectively. The findings of IPW and IPWRA were similar to PSM which confirms the robustness of the results. The ATT values were Tk. 257,667, and 257,683 based on IPW and IPWRA, respectively. The income from off-season tomato cultivation can be further increased by improving management practices, such as timing of various growth regulators application [6, 22]. Thus, there is scope to raise the income reducing costs by appropriate management practice. The studies suggested that training on off-season tomato cultivation has significant impact of income [9]. Therefore, more efforts on trained farmers may also provide better results.


*\*\*\*Indicates significant at 1% level.*

*Nearest neighbor, kernel matching, and radius matching identified 34, 98, and 98 farmers as non-growers (control), respectively.*

#### **Table 1.**

*Impact of off-season tomato cultivation on income.*

*Impact of Off-Season Summer Tomato Cultivation on Income and Food Security of the Growers DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.93674*


#### **Table 2.**

*Impact of off-season tomato cultivation on consumption expenditure.*


#### **Table 3.**

*Impact of off-season tomato cultivation on FCS.*

The consumption expenditure per adult is also significantly higher for offseason tomato growers compared to non-growers based on nearest neighbor, radius, and kernel matching (**Table 2**). The findings of IPW and IPWRA were also similar to PSM which confirms the robustness of the results. The ATT values were found to be Tk. 8545 and 8449 based on IPW and IPWRA, respectively. Due to higher income off-season tomato growers were able to spend more on consumption. Karim et al. [7] also indicated that off-season tomato growers were able to increase their socioeconomic status due to higher income.

FCS was used as proxy to capture the impact of off-season tomato cultivation on food security of the growers. The findings of PSM analysis indicate that off-season tomato cultivation has significant effect on the FCS of the growers. FCS was significantly higher for off-season tomato growers compared to non-growers based on nearest neighbor, and radius matching (**Table 3**). The ATT values were 7.09 and 5.87 based on nearest neighbor and radius matching, respectively. The ATT values were also significant at the 5% level for the other two methods which confirm the robustness of the findings. Off-season tomato cultivation can be a useful way of increasing the income and food security status of the farmers. More awareness building programs and extension efforts are warranted to increase the area under off-season tomato cultivation.

#### **6. Constraints of off-season tomato cultivation**

Although off-season tomato cultivation is observed to be a profitable crop, but there are several constraints to its higher production. Eighty percent of the farmers reported frequent attack of insect and diseases was the major constraint that hinders the adoption and production confirm the findings of Ali et al. [20] (**Table 4**).


#### **Table 4.**

*Constraints of off-season tomato cultivation.*

High price of tunnel materials and growth hormone require high cash amount for cultivation which in turns hinder the adoption process and production. More research on off-season tomato varieties is essential to optimize the technology.
