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.

Maharashtra is a traditional state of tasar silk production. The productivity of the state shows that the cocoons yield is hovering around 25-30 cocoons per dfls which might be due to lack of skills and training about the recommended package of practices. Thus, the investigation of impact of training on knowledge, adoption and rearing performance was undertaken with a random sample of 120 tasar silkworm rearers of Maharashtra. The study found that there was a significant impact on knowledge gain and adoption level (p<0.05) post training with the average difference of 34.30 per cent and 27.40 per cent, respectively. As far as the rearing performance was concerned, the hatching percentage and effective rate of rearing showed an improvement of 17.32 per cent and 36.66 per cent, respectively; whereas cocoon yield was improved by 1179 cocoons per 100 dfls. Similarly the annual income of tasar silkworm rearers was improved by Rs.2358/-per 100 dfls. The 't' test of significance showed that there was significant improvement in the hatching percentage, effective rate of rearing, cocoon yield per 100 dfls and annual income per 100 dfls (p<0.05) post training. Thus, study recommend that the frequent training programs about the improved tasar rearing technologies should be organized to achieve the human resource development objective of the state which in turn will help in expanding the Tasar silk industry in state of Maharashtra and in India as a whole.

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Orange is the second most important fruit crop of Maharashtra. However, the productivity of fruit is found to be dwindling which might be due to the gaps in adoption of recommended technical know-how. Therefore, the study was undertaken to assess the adoption gaps of recommended orange technologies and the influence of socio-economic characteristics on the adoption gaps. The average gap was to the tune of 31.89 per cent.  As far as the association and influence of profile characteristic are concerned, it was found that size of land, source of credit, annual income, experience in farming and knowledge level of the orange growers, knowledge of GAP practices, mass media exposure and socio-economic status had negative correlation with adoption gaps (P= .01) whereas size of land holding and knowledge level, knowledge of GAP practices and annual income had negative influence on adoption gaps (P= .01). The study recommends that the proper extension and communication strategies should be developed for the dissemination of orange production technologies in state. Also, the public and private extension support systems are needed to be reoriented so that they can act more efficiently to provide necessary information about orange cultivation. The present study was conducted in Amravati and Nagpur districts of Maharashtra. An ‘ex post facto’ research design was used for the study. A sample of 200 orange growers was selected through stratified random sampling method for the study. The results of the study shows that most of the orange growers had gap in application of micro nutrient (44.76 %) followed by fruit drop measures (43.16 %) and plant protection measures (42.75%). The average gap was to the tune of 31.89 per cent.  As far as the association and influence of profile characteristic are concerned, it was found that  size of land, source of credit, annual income, experience in farming and knowledge level of the orange growers, knowledge of GAP practices, mass media exposure and socio-economic status had negative correlation with adoption gaps (P= .01) whereas size of land holding and knowledge level, knowledge of GAP practices and annual income had negative influence on adoption gaps (P= .01). The study recommends that the proper extension and communication strategies should be developed for the dissemination of orange production technologies in state. Also, the public and private extension support systems are needed to be reoriented so that they can act more efficiently to provide necessary information about orange cultivation.