Central Silk Board aims to double India's silk production

21 Jun '12

2 min read

The Central Silk Board (CSB), under the Union Ministry of Textiles, is aiming to double the country’s raw silk production to 46,000 tons over the next five to eight years, and make silk a pan-Indian commodity.

In 2011-12, India’s raw silk production touched 23,000 tons, rising at a year-on-year rate of 12.6 percent.

The Board intends to bring more non-traditional silk producing states like Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar under silk cultivation, while enhancing production in traditional states.

Southern and north-eastern states are traditional producers of Mulberry silk in India, whereas other silk varieties like muga, tussar and eri are traditionally produced in Orissa and Jharkhand.

Under the 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-17), CSB has proposed spending Rs. 27.99 billion for enhancing mulberry silk production in the country. The proposed sum is 2.5 times more than the amount spent under the 11th Plan.

The Board also proposes to raise the area under mulberry cultivation by five times from existing 170,000 hectares to 850,000 by 2017.

CSB is also currently discussing technology transfer agreements with Brazil, Thailand and Japan in the field of dyeing, processing, finishing and conversion of silk fabrics.

Hit by financial crunch in Europe and sluggish revival of the US economy, raw silk exports from India dipped to Rs. 21.04 billion during the initial 11 months of 2011-12, a 26.5 percent below exports worth Rs. 28.63 billion registered during the corresponding period of previous fiscal.

Europe, the US and West Asia are the three major silk export destinations for India.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

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