To promote silk cultivation in India, Textiles Minister Santosh Gangwar today said the country needs to adopt best practices in the field of sericulture.
The Minister also felicitated 54 women from 27 states who have achieved significant success in silk farming.
"Through sericulture, you have been able to provide good education to your children and spend the money earned out of it fruitfully for the betterment of your families. This is indeed encouraging. You are role models for other farmers. I would appeal to you to promote sericulture for enhanced silk production in the country," Gangwar told women achievers.
"It is the right time for us to focus on high quality silk and become truly world class," added the Minister.
Gangwar also expressed happiness about the innovative practices adopted by women in sericulture and hoped that this workshop will help in augmenting production of quality silk in the country substantially.
Besides, Textiles Secretary Sanjay Kumar Panda stressed that Sericulture is an effective tool for poverty eradication in rural areas and empowerment of women. He highlighted that quality silk worm food plants, robust silk worm races, production of quality silk worm seed and effective marketing should be the focus areas.
Panda stated that the key to success is good team work with synergy with the schemes of other departments like Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) and National Afforestation Programme (NAP), appropriate technology and effective management.
India continues to be the second largest producer of silk in the world. The silk production has shown a remarkable progress during the year 2013-14. There was an all time increase of 11.8 per cent growth in silk production during 2013-14 when compared to the production during 2012-13.
The raw silk production in India during 2013-14 was 26,480 MTs which includes 1.9476 MTs of mulberry silk, 2619 MTs of tasar silk, 4,237 MTs of eri silk and 148 MTs of muga silk.
During the current financial year (2014-15) it is targeted to produce 28,500 MTs silk which includes 3,500 MTs of quality bivoltine silk. This also covers production of 2,785 MTs of tasar silk, 4760 MTs of eri silk and 150 MTs of muga silk.
The demand for superior quality bivoltine silk is increasing in India for domestic consumption as well as value added silk products for the export market. The Ministry of Textiles and Departments of Sericulture in various states provide technical and financial assistance for enhancing the bivoltine silk production.
