Development
By kuldeep0116 - updated: 6 years, 7 months ago - 1 message
Development of sericulture is an ideal tool for improving rural ecomomy. Among the natural fibers, sillk occupies a positon of prestige. One of the major developments in recent times is the widespread use of silk for all apparels in pure and blended forms. The essential requirements for this ccottage industry are suitable climate, abundant growth of mulberry and avalability of semiagricultureal laboour. India contributes to over 15 percent of world rawsilk output and is the fourth largest producer after Japan, China and Russia. India has also the unique heritage of non-mulberry dilk culture.
Andhra Pradesh occupies a unique positon in the field of silk industry inas much as the mulberry silk tasar and seri silk to a very limited exxtent areproduced in the State. Sericulture fits eel in rural areas where aggruculture is the main stay and where we have a large mumber of small and margianl farmers. It reses the per capita income of the peasantry and solves problems connectedwith unemplooyment and rural areas.
The silent features of mulberry silk industry are five to six cropa can be raised in a year. It is therefore a source of recurring cahs returems and enables the agriculturists to finance other agricultureal operations without recourse to debt; when once a mulberry garden is set up, it can live up to ten to twelve years; rearing if works can be attended to even by women folk and mulberry is a hard plant and can withsatand drought. The chief factor which limits the spread of the industry is that silk worms thrive under certaon conditions of temperature and humidity which is usually obtained in placces with an attitude of about 2000 ft. and above. Mulberry is irrigated crop.
Mulberry silk imdustry is largely localised in Anantpur and Chittoer districts in close proxility to Karnataka State, which is the chief producer of mulberry silk. A marginal farmer with even an acre of land can have careful suprrvision and earn nerarly Rs. 8000 after meeting the cost of cultivation. In selecting the land for planting mulberry, genrrally alkaline and the water logged areas are to be necessarily avoided. Manuring is alos essential for their rapid growth.
