Promote sericulture to boost Indian silk output: Minister

18 Sep '14

2 min read

Santosh Kumar Gangwar, India’s Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Textiles, has urged rural women to promote sericulture for increasing silk production in the country.

Speaking at the inaugural session of a national workshop on “Empowering Women Through Sericulture”, the Minister said that sericulture has been providing gainful livelihood opportunities to rural women.

The Minister honoured 54 women from 27 Indian states who had achieved significant success in production, productivity and adoption of best practices in the field of sericulture. Addressing these achievers, Mr. Gangwar said, “You are role models for other farmers. I would appeal to you to promote sericulture for enhanced silk production in the country.”

Urging that all efforts need to be put to make India the leading producer of silk, the Minister said, “It is the right time for us to focus on high quality silk and become truly world class.” He added that the Textiles Ministry would like to take the development process through participative approaches leading to inclusive growth.

In his presentation at the workshop, Textiles Secretary Sanjay Kumar Panda stressed that sericulture is an effective tool for poverty eradication in rural areas and empowerment of women. He further stated that the challenges ahead lie in producing quality bivoltine silk for meeting the need of the silk weaving industry. He further highlighted that quality silk worm food plants, robust silk worm races, production of quality silk worm seed and effective marketing should be the focus areas.

India is the second largest producer of silk in the world. In 2013-14, India’s silk production increased by 11.8 percent year-on-year to 26480 MTs. During the current financial year 2014-15, silk production target is set at 28500 MTs.

Meanwhile, the demand for superior quality bivoltine silk is increasing in India for domestic consumption as well as value added silk products for the export market. Hence, the Ministry of Textiles and Departments of Sericulture in various states are providing technical and financial assistance for enhancing the bivoltine silk production. (RKS)

Click here for details of the 23^rd International Congress of ISC on Sericulture and Silk Industry.

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