Adoption of wine grape production technology in Maharashtra

The study was conducted in Nashik and Pune districts of Maharashtra during 2008-09. One hundred and sixty wine grape growers were selected by adopting simple random sampling. About 40.00 per cent of the respondents belonged to medium level of adoption category. As high as 57.50 per cent of the respondents had grown Cabernet Sauvignon variety. A large majority of the respondents followed summer pruning in April (71.87%) and winter pruning in September (90.62%). Very negligible per cent of the respondents applied the filling material (10.00%), organic manure (11.87%) and chemical fertilizers to their orchards as per recommendation. A large majority of the respondents (80.00%) did not adopt the gibberlic acid treatment. The major problems perceived by the wine grape growers were high cost of planting material (100.00%), irregular and insufficient supply of electricity for irrigation (100.00%), high cost of plant protection chemicals (88.75%), inadequate guidance regarding improved technology (86.62%) and high cost of fertilizers (82.50%).