Abstract :
India is world’s second largest silk producer. However its sericulture is marked by low productivity and poor quality of produce. Because of this reason India imports large quantities of raw silk mainly to meet the demands of the high speed power-looms. Thus the country has become the largest importer of silk also. However its potentials for expanding silk production is proven, given the increasing domestic as well as global demand for silk and silk products. Because of the inability to maintain quality standards, India is not only unable to compete in the international silk market but also facing tough competition in the domestic market with imported silk. The large scale silk import has affected domestic sericulture causing considerable labour displacement, which is a cause for important socio economic concern. It is of general consensus that adoption of Bivoltine hybrid silkworm is the only answer to this problem. But the bivoltine technology diffusion in India has been slow in spite of serious efforts. In this context an empirical study was taken up to look into the factors determining the diffusion of bivoltine hybrid silkworm in India, in the frame work of the economic theory of diffusion of innovations. The empirical study was done in the sericulture belt of Mandya district of Karnataka. Our analysis of the adoption process of bivoltine hybrid silkworm provides a few empirical facts. In agreement with the empirical literature on adoption, age and education are found to impact negatively on bivoltine adoption decision. So also farm size exerts a positive influence. Mitigation of perceived risk and uncertainty are found to be important on adoption of bivoltine hybrid. While family labour availability discouraged bivoltine adoption, credit encouraged it. The importance of profitability is emphasised by the results. The three variables capturing reduction in profitability of bivoltine sericulture showed significant negative influence on its adoption; however the linkage between productivity and adoption could not be explained due to data constraints. From the supply side while subsidies appear to be an encouraging factor for bivoltine adoption the extension efforts of private CRCs (supplying cross breed worms) is found to deter the choice of bivoltine hybrid by the farmer. The extension efforts of the government agencies are found to be insignificant in this respect.
