Vijayawada sericulture centre set to retain top slot again

The Silk Board's sericulture service centre in Vijayawada is slated to distribute about four lakh silk worm eggs this year.

With this, the centre is certain to retain its first place among five other centres in the state this fiscal also in the distribution of silkworm eggs to farmers, a record it has been maintaining since 1997.

The sericulture centre in Vijayawada covers the districts of Chittoor, Nellore, Prakasam, Guntur, Krishna, West Godavari, East Godavari, Visakhapatnam, Srikakulam and Vizianagaram. The centre stood first in south India while discharging the same service during 2000-2001 and 2001-02.

Speaking to Business Standard, Silk Board's assistant director D Subba Rao, said: "The centre has been helping about 700 farmers in the nine districts in rearing silkworm cocoons by supplying eggs on time and guiding them till the eggs become larvae, and then cocoons. The farmers sell away cocoons at the market yards. They make a maximum net profit of Rs 15,000 per crop, per month, per acre. An enterprising farmer can harvest ten crops a year. His expenditure is Rs 5,000 per crop per acre."

"The sericulture service centre is providing farmers technology during incubation and hatching of eggs into larvae and during feeding of larvae with mulberry leaves and their growth into pupae (cocoons). It takes just 26 days for an egg to develop into a pupa (cocoon). Professional reelers buy cocoons from farmers. At present, a kg of cocoons fetches farmers Rs 125. A farmer can reap 125-150 kg cocoons per acre. The reelers produce 1,000 metres of silk thread from one cocoon," he said.

"About 10,000 families of Rayalaseema districts have been making a living on reeling profession for generations. Only about 20 families do this job in coastal Andhra. They boil the thread and sell the twisted yarn to silk textile industries in Kanchi, Bangalore, Pochampalli, Proddutur, Dharmavaram and other places. Fifty per cent of the money generated in sericulture, an agro-based cottage industry, goes to farmers, 10 per cent to reelers and the remaining to the silk cloth industry," Rao said.

"The second phase of board's activities," Rao said, "is production of eggs at its 40 egg laying centres, located at Chittoor, Madanapalle and Hindupur. The silkworm parents have been brought from Japan and China. Indian and Japanese scientists are collaborating in improving quality of eggs and cocoons by genetically modifying them to suit the local climate. Each moth lays about 500-600 eggs. The board would supply farmers 250 disease free layings (DFLS) per acre free of cost. One DFLS contains about 400 eggs. CSR 2x4 and PMxCSR2 cocoon varieties are popular with Andhra farmers."

"Red soil with sufficient irrigation facility is suitable for growing mulberry gardens, the main and only feed for silk larvae. The Silk Board gives a subsidy of 50 paise per sapling for raising mulberry nurseries and up to Rs 25,000 per acre for erecting and maintaining 'cocoon rearing houses'. About 5,000 mulberry saplings are planted in an acre. The state is also giving subsidy and providing sprinklers and other facilities to them. Apart from subsidies, if a farmer spends Rs 1 lakh and takes up sericulture in three acres, he is bound to mint huge profits, provided the farmer's entire family devotes attention to cocoon rearing," Rao said.