Shimla: Central Sericulture Board (CSB) has asked for a persistent approach to develop sericulture in 6 districts of Himachal Pradesh that had high potential for production of raw silk.
At an all India catalytic development program review meeting here today, H Hanumanthappa, chairman CSB, stressed upon monitoring both state and central sponsored schemes for development of sericulture. He added that efforts made by the board had enabled the country to achieve a production of 19,600 tons of silk in 2009-2010.
Speaking at the meeting JC Sharma, director industries HP who oversees the sericulture department said that in order to improve earnings of sericulture farmers, cultivation of cocoon crops was required to be done at least three times in a year.
He said that there were around 9000 farmer who were involved in cocoon cultivation in Himachal and cross hybrid silk cocoons needed to be introduced to improve productivity and incomes.
Efforts were being made to improve average income to Rs 40000 annually from rearing cocoons which presently was quite low, said Sharma adding purchase prices had been increased by as much as Rs 450 per Kg in two years
Sericulture has high potential in the districts of Bilaspur, Mandi, Kangra, Una, Hamirpur and Sirmaur, he said.
M Sathiyavathy, member secretary CSB said that CSB schemes were being implemented for improvement in production of cocoon through expansion of existing infrastructure, training, and supply of vital inputs.
At the meet Sathiyavathy agreed to open a Demonstration and Training Service centre under post cocoon section in Himachal Pradesh. Technical experts would immediately be deployed to man the centre.
She announced that a new Research and Extension Centre of CSB was likely to be opened in a silk growing potential district of the state and another redundant centre would be re-located into an area that held scope for increasing sericulture production.
In all there were representatives from 8 states who participated in the meeting which included representatives from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Kerela, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh.
As Editor, Ravinder Makhaik leads a team of media professionals at Hill Post.
Spanning a career of over two decades in mass communication, as a Documentary Filmmaker, TV journalist, Print Media journalist and with Online & Social Media, he brings with him a vast experience. He lives in Shimla.
