Knowledge and adoption levels of farmers play a vital role in determining the production and productivity of crops. In sericulture too, production and productivity of mulberry and cocoons were greatly determined by the extent of knowledge possessed by the farmers on sericulture technologies and its adoption. The present investigation was undertaken to know the knowledge and adoption levels of farmers for production of mulberry, a sole food plant for the silkworm, Bombyx mori L. in two taluks of Chamarajanagar district namely Kollegal and Yelandur. The study revealed that, majority of the farmers possesses full knowledge about length of mulberry cutting, season of planting and no. of crops to be taken up per year in all three categories of farmers (small, medium and big). On the other hand, more number in all the three categories of farmers had partial knowledge on land preparation, no. of buds/cutting, degree of planting, quantity of FYM, schedule of irrigation, time of weeding, plant protection measures and no. of DFLs reared/acre/crop. Further, majority of small and medium group of farmers did not have knowledge on soil type, mulberry variety, method of planting, fertilizer dose, mulberry variety and type of mulching. In respect of adoption of mulberry production practices, majority of the farmers had partially adopted the practices like land preparation, age of mulberry cutting, no. of buds/cutting, length of the cutting, method of planting, degree of planting, quantity of FYM, fertilizers dose, schedule of irrigation, time of weeding, preservation of leaf, plant protection measures and no. of DFLs reared/acre. The practices that comes under full adoption includes mulberry variety and no. of crops to be taken up per year, while few farmers did not adopt soil type required for mulberry and type of mulching in mulberry gardens.
