Study of Gaps in Adoption of Improved Tasar Silkworm (Antheraea mylitta D) Rearing Technologies

Abstract

Maharashtra contributes paltry 0.76 per cent of the total production of tasar silk in the country, with 23 MT but the production of tasar silk in the state is found to be dwindling which might be due to the gaps in knowledge and adoption of improved tasar silkworm rearing technologies. Therefore, present investigation was undertaken to assess the gaps in adoption of tasar silkworm rearing technologies and constraints faced by the tasar farmers in adopting the recommended technologies. The study was conducted in Bhandara, Gondia and Gadchiroli districts of Maharashtra. The “Ex-post facto” research design was used for the study. A total 120 tasar silkworm rearing farmers were randomly selected for the study from those selected districts. The data was analyzed using SPSS software. The results showed that the major gaps in adoption were seen the practices such as Integrated Pest Management for the control of gall disease (91.67%), application of Farm Yard Manure (FYM) or vermi-compost @4 kg/plant or 2kg/plans twice in a year (87.50%) and foliar spraying of 1.5% urea twice @ 15 days’ interval before 30 days of rearing (78.33%) and these were ranked 1st, 2nd and 3rd, respectively. The average gaps in adoption were 52.71 per cent. Similarly, non-availability of quality seeds/Dfls for rearing, non availability of disease resistance/tolerant silkworm races, non-enhancement of seed cocoon/reelable cocoon prices due to non-availability of formal and fair market, no hand holding support during the crop failure from the government, outbreak of diseases due to weather fluctuation and difficulty in adoption of recommended package of practices due to insufficient fund were the major constraints experienced by the tasar silkworm rearers. Thus, proper research, extension, communication and training strategies are needed to be formulated so that the constraints faced in adoption will be removed and the gaps in adoption could be bridged in order to accelerate the rate of adoption of modern tasar silkworm technologies in state and, thus, increasing the scope for boosting the tasar silk production of the state in the years to come.