UP to become self-sufficient in silk yarn production

The UP sericulture department, which was running in losses some time back, is going to emerge into one of the important departments of the state.

Working on its revival these days, the department expects the production of silk yarn to go up to 500 tonnes in the next 2-3 years and about 1,000 tonnes in the next five years.

Talking to Business Standard, Jagdish Singh Rana, handloom and silk minister, said, "The state will be self-sufficient in silk consumption by 2012. In order to strengthen the scope of silk production in the state, Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav has decided to provide 15,000 hectares of land to the sericulture department for tree cultivation." The present silk yarn consumption of the state is 1,000 metric tonnes, while the production is a meagre 50 metric tonnes.

This land is given in the districts of Meerut, Bijnore and Muzaffarnagar. The total investment under this project is estimated to be around Rs 1,088.38 crores.

"We will get the land in about two months, once it is cleared by the Supreme Court. The projected quantity produced will be about 179 metric tonnes of mulberry silk and 100 tonnes of tassar silk per annum," Rana added.

The yearly cost of produced silk with this scheme would be Rs 34 crore, which is estimated to be Rs 46 crore after value addition.