India's Central Silk Board to boost tassar production

16 Jul '12

2 min read

Enhancing the production of silk, especially tassar silk, in the country would be the main focus of the Central Silk Board of India during the 12th Five Year plan period.

The country produced 1,025 metric tons of tassar silk during last fiscal. The 12th Five Year Plan would focus on raising the output to 8,000 metric tons over the next five years, the newly elected Secretary General of International Sericulture Commission (ISC) and CEO and Member Secretary of Central Silk Board, Ishita Roy, said.

Presently, India stands second in tassar production in the world, and there is need to boost its production to make it the top producer in the world, she said and added that the demand-supply gap has reduced as compared to earlier times.

The Board is collaborating with textile firms, and conducting market study and research work to boost production, she said.

She informed that the Board would look at addressing issues like that of quality certification, R&D, quality processes, production growth and introduction of centrally sponsored schemes that would be an indicator of the market conditions.

Naming Jharkhand as a priority state, Ms. Roy said that it has great potential in silk production.

She said if they could manage to exploit the genetic resources spread across the country, and can bring foreign technology to work, the cost of production would fall, facilitating an improvement in quality and productivity.

The Board has already announced that it would introduce silk mark tags to help buyers differentiate between pure and impure silk.

The Board would also launch a helpline to allow people to check if the product hails from an authorised dealer or not. In addition, the Board would also activate a special contact number where customer’s queries would be answered, Ms. Roy said.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

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