Evaluation of Mulberry Genotypes for Tropical Areas

India occupies a pivotal position in the production of raw silk. Mulberry is an outstanding bio-energy food plant and constitutes the sole food plant of silkworm Bombyx mori L. Mulberry taxonomy is highly confusing due to its heterozygous and cross pollinated nature. Plentiful mulberry varieties are growing in nature and it is the need of the hour to evaluate the genotype for its morpho-economic and biochemical traits suitable for silkworm rearing. Many breeders working in state and central research institutes are striving hard to evaluate new varieties through selection, hybridization, mutation and polyploidy breeding. Mulberry is polygenic in nature and retention of characters in the progenies is a tough task because of its unassuming growth behaviour. Acclimatization of exotic varieties to local environmental conditions is also a herculean task since most of them are poor rooters. In India, Karnataka enjoys tropical and salubrious environmental conditions throughout the year and is possible to harvest 5-6 crops/year. Karnataka enjoys the lion share in silk production and heralded a golden era due to steady and stabilized cocoon price when compare to any other agricultural crops.