SERICULTURE IN INDIA

Indian sericulture contributes four types of silk Mulberry, Tassar, Eri & Muga to the World of silk fabrics. Mulberry silk accounts for 90% of the total silk production in the country, thus it has assumed prominent place in the agro-industrial activities. Areas in search of occupational opportunities. The salient features like higher yield due to technological advancements, better returns in the domestic as well as international markets for the silk and silk products, and scope for frequent cash accrual round the year has brought mulberry sericulture to a comparable level with other agricultural cash crops grown in the similar agro-climatic condition. Sericulture, thus has become a highly remunerative agro based cottage industry.
Sericulture is the technique of silk production. It is an agro-industry playing an eminent role in the rural economy of India. Silk fibre is a protein produced from the silk glands of silkworms. Five varieties of silkworms are reared in India for producing this natural fibre. Bombyx mori, the silkworm, feeds on the leaves of Morus, to produce the best quality of fibre among the different varieties of silk produced in the country. Antherea assama produces the famous muga silk. This variety is confined only to the Brahmaputra valley of India in the world. Tasar silk is a product of Antherea mylitta, which feeds on Terminalia tomentosa grown in the thick jungles of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa. Antherea royeli and Antherea perniyi has been recently introduced to produce the oak tasar silk, Phylosamia ricini, the eri silkworm, which feeds on Ricinus communis, is raised in Assam and Orissa.
The process of drawing silk fibre from the cocoon is called ‘reeling’. The cocoons are cooked in hot water and the silk fibre is unwound from the cocoons. The silk consists of two proteins, the inner core of fibroin and an outer cover of gum sericin. During reeling, the cocoons are processed in hot water at 95-970C for 10-15 minutes. This process is called cooking. This cooking will enable the sericin portion to get softened and make unwinding easy without breaks. The cocoons after cooking are reeled in hot water in different types of machines. In India, 61% of the silk amounting to 1,320 tonnes is reeled on the country-type charka (spinning-wheel) numbering 6,656. The silk produced with the country charka is of very poor quality, as the thread is not uniform, as it carries many slubs etc. the improved cottage-type basins have been introduced recently into India. Provision for button-holes and a proper croisure system to maintain the thickness of the fibre, and to control the defects of neatness in the cottage basin have facilitated the production of better-quality silk. As much as 4,000 cottage basins in the country produce 806 tonnes of silk.
Large-scale basins organized scientifically are arranged in filatures for the extraction of superior-quality fibre. The silk produced by the filatures is superior because of the low level of defects of cleanliness and uniformity in the thickness of the fibre. Only 8% of the total production of silk in India is contributed by filatures.