J&K to rear cocoons even during autumns

17 Sep '11

2 min read

Jammu & Kashmir Sericulture Department has succeeded in its initial attempts of introducing cocoon rearing at 40 locations in the Kashmir valley during autumn season, Minister for Agriculture, Ghulam Hassan has said.

The Minister unveiled a silkworm rearing programme at Mirgund's Seed Multiplication Centre. The programme is intended at introducing multi-cropping in the Valley, so as to promote sericulture as a viable and sustainable venture.

According to the Minister, sericulture has immense potential for employment generation and it would become easier to create more employment with the aid of multi-cropping technique.

The cocoon rearing programme was first introduced in Dhobiwan tangmarg, Mirgund and Bandipora areas, and is proposed to be launched throughout the State from next year onwards, so as to provide employment opportunities to unemployed youth of the State.

The Minister asked the Sericulture Department officials to transform J&K into a quality cocoon producing State.

Citing the recently released statistics, he said they are quite encouraging and the J&K Sericulture Department should soon be able to meet its own requirement for quality cocoons and even be able to cater to the needs of other States in future.

Further, the Minister stressed on the need to specially train the weavers in hot dryer technique and upgrading them with the present-day technological know-how in cocoon rearing.

He emphasized on the need for generating awareness regarding various government schemes introduced to help the reelers.

While making a mention of the community based silkworm rearing programme, he said the main aim underlying the programme is to further employment opportunities to the unemployed youth in the Valley by engaging them in cocoon rearing work.

Those newly engaged in the cocoon rearing work would be provided total assistance by the Sericulture Department in the form of rearing space, equipments and Mulberry leaf available at sericulture farms.

Youth in the valley would only be engaged to sell the cocoons produced in the State, thus enhancing the scope of income generation both from cocoon rearing and selling, the Minister added.

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