Sericulture Industry

Abstract

India has a huge potential for sericulture development unlike other agro industries since sericulture is a unique agro-based industry comprising of several components such as mulberry cultivation, silkworm rearing, silk reeling and other connected activities. Each of these components appear to be independent but closely linked with one another having intricacies of their own. The major activities of these components comprises of mulberry food-plant cultivation to feed the silkworms which spin silk cocoons and reeling the cocoons for unwinding the silk filament for manufacturing silk goods, subjecting them to the process of degumming, bleaching, dyeing, weaving and printing. Thus sericulture industry provides employment to approximately 7.85 million in rural and semi urban areas in India. Of these, a sizeable number belongs to the economically weaker sections of the society, including women. In addition to this, India has the unique credibility of producing all the five known commercial silk viz., mulberry, tropical tasar, oak tasar, eri and muga of which muga with its golden yellow glitter is unique and prerogative of India. Though silk is a luxury item, it is produced by the rural populace and purchased by urban rich, causing money to flow from urban to rural. It also prevents rural people to migrate to urban areas. The United Nation's recent endeavor “Millennium Development Goals” has an eight point programme to make our earth more healthy wealthy and free from inequalities by 2015. Sericulture being a rural and women friendly business aligns well with many of these ideas which are explained in detail in the chapter.