Sericulturist’s knowledge regarding improved practices of sericulture

Abstract

The present study was undertaken in the purposively selected Aurangabad district of Marathwada region as the area under Sericulture is increasing since last few years. Two villages Kekat Jalgaon and Vihamandava from Paithan and Dongargaon and Pimpalgaon from Phulambri taluka were selected purposively for the study. Twenty sericulturists were selected randomly from each of the village thus making a sample size of eighty respondents for the present study. The respondents were interviewed with the help of structured schedule prepared for the purpose. It is concluded that the respondents were in young age up to 35 years with high education status, marginal land holding up to 1 hectare and medium area under mulberry cultivation 0.31 to 0.40 hectare with three years of experience in cultivation and medium annual income of Rs 41501 to 161000/- with low social participation and medium use of information sources and high extension contact. Majority of the sericulturists were having sound knowledge about mulberry cultivation practices like plantation (83.75 per cent), intercultural operations (90.00 per cent) and plant protection (60.00 per cent). rearing larvae in terms of proper picking of leaves and their storage (82.50 per cent), rearing house (62.50 per cent) and actual rearing of larvae (66.25 per cent).