Sericulture, a fall back when other avenues fail

Navaneethan with his international quality silkworm cocoons, ready for harvest.

“Today large numbers of educated rural youth are migrating to cities in search of work, as agriculture has not been remunerative.

“Though there are several reasons for loss and failure in agriculture, proper guidance and right decisions taken at the correct time prevents losses, and at the same time generates thousands of rupees as income, besides providing employment to several others,” says Dr. R. Balakrishna, Head, Regional Sericultural Research Station, Allikkuttai (Post), Salem.

Income generation

Income generation is the only way to retain youth in agriculture and today sericulture promises to offer monthly income on par with salaries drawn from private jobs based on the entrepreneurs’ interest and work, according to Mr. N. Sakthivel, Head, Research Extension Centre, Central Silk Board, Srivilliputtur, Tamil Nadu.

Sericulture falls into two sections: one, cultivation and maintenance of mulberry plants, the food plant of silkworm; and two, rearing of silkworms on 4-5 tier rack in a well ventilated rearing shed by feeding them mulberry leaves.

Advanced technologies

Advanced technologies for mulberry cultivation and user friendly, cost-effective silkworm rearing technologies are being introduced by the Central Silk Board for farmers.

These new techniques do not involve drudgery, require low investment, and promise good income.

“After establishing a mulberry garden and rearing shed, one can take up sericulture for years together.

Professionals

Many graduates, post-graduates, even engineers and doctors especially in Erode, Coimbatore, Dharmapuri, and Krishnagiri districts are practicing sericulture on a large scale,” says Mr. Sakthivel.

Says Mr. R. Navaneethan a successful sericulture farmer from Srivilliputtur, Tamil Nadu:

“I am earning a monthly income of more than Rs. 45,000 from this vocation.

After completing my post graduation I got a number of employment opportunities. But family responsibilities required me to maintain my ancestral lands (15 acres) and I undertook cotton trading for nearly 20 years, and faced repeated losses.

The low profit from my lands forced me to cut short even my essential expenditure such as my childrens’ educational expenses,” recalls Mr. Navaneethan.

During 2003 the Department of Sericulture, Government of Tamil Nadu encouraged farmers to take up agro based business in villages for generating assured monthly incomes.

“The intensive support from the department,” says Mr. Navaneethan, helped him to establish the required infrastructure easily.

Investment

“I planted a high yielding mulberry variety and constructed a silkworm rearing house for rearing 500 silkworm egg masses at a time. I invested about Rs. 4.5 lakh and claimed some subsidy from the department.

“Initially I reared conventional silkworm breeds but later switched over to international breeds that fetch higher incomes,” he explains.

The farmer adopts advanced technologies such as stem cutting machine for pruning the mulberry garden, drip irrigation, mulching for weed management to cut short labour requirements. He now harvests about 325 kg of cocoons per batch and earns a monthly profit of Rs.47, 500 and an annual net profit of Rs. 5, 70,000.

“Providing recommended inputs to mulberry plants to produce quality leaves, proper disinfection measures, and maintenance of a hygienic and cool rearing environment even in summer are the secret of Mr. Navaneethans’ success in the field says,” Mr. Sakthivel.

No retirement

“Many of my friends working in private and government jobs are going to be retire by next year, but I am planning to extend mulberry cultivation by four acres and construct one more rearing house to double my income,” smiles Mr. Navaneethan.

According to him, the adequate monetary benefit and extensive technical support of the research center in Srivilliputtur created enthusiasm to expand his business as large scale industry.

“The Central Silk Board and the State Sericulture Departments are providing extensive support to start sericulture, provide training and extend technical support for those interested in pursuing this line,” says Dr. Balakrishna.

For further details contact Mr. Navaneethan, A. Ramalingapuram village, Achanthavilthan (Post), Srivilliputtur, Virudunagar, Tamil Nadu, mobile: 9487402903 and regional sericultural research station at email: rsrsslm@gmail.com, Phone: 0427-2296374.

Technical support helps women sericulture farmers

Mr. sakthivel (scientist) with the lady farmer Andal in her silworm rearing shed.

“Rural women seem to possess an acute sense of wisdom and talent compared to their male counterparts and if given proper guidelines and help, can become financially successful,” says Mr. N. Sakthivel, Scientist & Head, Research Extension Center, Central Silk Board, Srivilliputtur, Tamil Nadu. “Though it is true that agriculture incomes are dwindling and many farmers are selling their fields to commercial realtors, there are still some people like Mrs. S. Andal from Ramalingapuram village in Srivilliputhur who are earning a monthly income of more than Rs. 25,000 from their agriculture vocation and are able to provide job opportunities to several women,” he adds. “Traditionally, after marriage I took care of my husband’s seven acres land. Four years back, on the advice from the Department of sericulture (DOS), I decided to take up mulberry cultivation in three acres and constructed a silkworm rearing shed. Monthly income “I became interested in rearing silkworms as it offers a monthly income. Today I earn more than Rs. 20,000 a month and am able to meet my family’s needs and send my children to a good matriculation school,” she says with a sense of pride. “The success of sericulture mainly depends upon the infrastructure. The Department of Sericulture supports farmers by giving some subsidies to create the necessary infrastructures. After establishment of infrastructure sericulture can be taken up for many years continuously,” says Mr. Sakthivel. Harvesting figures At present, Mrs. Andal harvests about 250 kgs of cocoons that fetch her a gross income of more than Rs. 50,000. She gets a net profit of Rs. 25,000 – Rs.30,000 per crop (a crop consists of one month’s harvest. The farmer harvests 8-10 crops per year successfully). Her economic success made her one of the leading sericulturists in the southern zone. Besides the silkworms, the farmer also does some inter-cropping in her mulberry garden. She claims that intercropping helps avoid weed growth and generates some revenue that helps meet the revolving expenditure such as buying inputs for mulberry garden, and wages for labour among others. The Central silk board recently established a research extension center in Srivilliputtur, to extend technical support to the sericulture farmers in southern zone of Tamil Nadu. “The southern districts form a non-traditional sericulture belt, but the sericulture boom is spreading rapidly as the farmers accept modern technologies. Initiation “The center mainly concentrates on introducing rearing of bivoltine hybrid silkworms varieties that yield international quality silk, and so farmers get more income than rearing of local breeds. “The seri-business of Mrs. Andal succeeded only after her initiation to rear hybrid silkworms,” explains Mr. Sakthivel. Technologies such as platform rearing, mulberry shoot harvest, and feeding system, self mounting of matured silkworms for cocoon formation etc, introduced by silk board reduces the man power requirement as well as drudgery, and thus the industry becomes women-friendly. Empowers women In the present situation, sericulture not only empowers the rural women like Mrs. Andal, but also provides excellent self employment opportunities to the educated youth including women from the rural community. For more details readers can contact Mr. N.Sakthivel on mobile: 98427 61789, email: sakthivelcsb@hotmail.com and Mrs. S. Andal, on mobile : 9345295791. For Tamil and English podcast log on to http://www.thehindu/sci-tech/agriculture/