Sericulture Industry in India - A Source of Employment Generation

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International Journal of Advanced Engineering Research and Science (IJAERS)

[Vol-3, Issue-10, Oct- 2016]


https://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijaers/3.10.23
ISSN: 2349-6495(P) | 2456-1908(O)

Sericulture Industry in India - A Source of


Employment Generation
Prof. D. Bharathi
Department of Sericulture, Sri Padmavati Womens University, Tirupati- 517502, A.P., India
Abstract India is the second largest producer of silk in
the world ,next to China, with 14.7% share in global raw
silk production. Silk, considered as the queen of fibres, is
proteinaceous in nature. The bulk of commercial silk is
produced from the mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori. The
sericulture is rural, cottage and agro-based industry of
cultivating food plants, rearing silkworms, conducting silk
reeling, twisting, dyeing, weaving etc. ,provides continuous
employment to 6817 thousand people in India .The current
annual production of 16957 MTs of mulberry raw silk and
proportionate consumption of food plants in 179 thousand
hectares spread over 51 thousand villages ,generation of
125 thousand tons silk cocoons and 24 crore silkworm seed
indicate the colossal quantum of waste and pollution
generation in sericulture sector, require perceptive
management for ecological security, value addition, and
employment generation.
The catching art of crafting silk waste is one of the
interesting utility of silk, which develop human skills
besides generating self employment and additional revenue.
The crafts like garlands, flower vase, wreath, pen stand,
dolls, jeweler, wall hangings, clocks, bouquets, and
greeting cards, can be carved using silk wastes. The silk
based paper is used to craft flowers, buffet lamps, and
decorate plastics, steel and fabrics. The hybrid silk, net raw
silk, silk tow and silk waves were converted as high valued
fancy jackets, carpets and furnishings.
The traditional practices make mulberry and silkworm to
produce only silk filament and textiles, the new approach
extend its application towards nutritional, cosmetic,
pharmaceutical,
biomaterial,
biomedical,
and
bioengineering, automobile, house building, and art crafts.
Keywords Sericulture industry, Employment
generation, Silk, India.
I.
INTRODUCTION
Silk is known as the "Golden Fibre " of the " Queen of
textile " and is admired all over the world for its sleek and
luster. Its products are wonderfully light and soft but strong

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and smooth and universally accepted by the world top


fashion designers for its elegance, colors, dyeing affinity,
thermo tolerance and water absorbance.
Sericulture industry starts with agriculture activity of
mulberry cultivation, silkworm rearing and speed
production, opens up into the sectors of silk reeling,
twisting, weaving, dyeing, printing and manufacture etc.
These activities, in turn support the ancillary enterprises of
machine manufacture and by-product utilization including
spun silk yarn manufacture and pupae oil extraction, thus
providing employment for the skilled and unskilled labor
force, livelihood for the small and marginal farmers.
India is the second largest producer of silk in the world with
an annual production of silk more than 21,000 M. Tons in
2010-11 (provisional). In india, because of prevclence of
favorable climatic conditions, mulbery is cultivated mainly
in five states, viz., Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu,
West Bengal and Jammu and Kashmir. Silk industry is a
labour intensive in nature, which is mainly a cottage
industry in India providing livelihood to more than 9.42
lakh families. Nearly 7.56 million people are currently
engaged in sericulture and silk production.
Sericulture is practiced in about 52,360 villages all over the
country and employment to about 7.56 million people, most
of them being small and marginal farmers in rural areas,
creating employment to at least for 12-13 people per hectare
of mulberry; hence migration of people from rural to urban
areas in search of jobs can be minimized. India is earning
more than Rs 3,000 crore rupees from export of silk fabrics,
waste and garments [7]. In addition to high export
opportunities, silk is having very good domestic market and
strong handloom base blended with artisan skill, which is
the real strength of the Indian sericulture industry.
Sericulture being an agro-based enterprise plays a
predominant role in shaping the economic destiny of the
rural people. It holds promise as an employment generating
industry, especially in rural and semi-urban areas.
Sericulture is multidisplinary activity consists of food plant
cultivation (mulberry leaf production), silkworm rearing

Page | 144

International Journal of Advanced Engineering Research and Science (IJAERS)


[Vol-3, Issue-10, Oct- 2016]
https://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijaers/3.10.23
ISSN: 2349-6495(P) | 2456-1908(O)
(cocoon production), silkworm egg production, silk reeling
(yarn production), twisting, Warp and weft making, printing
and dyeing, weaving, (fabric production), finishing,
garment designing, marketing etc.
India has a glorious sericulture tradition of its own. Silk is
indispensable in ceremonies and religious rituals, being a
must in weddings and festivals. From this, it is very clear
that it has very strong domestic market, which is a real
strength of our sericulture industry. Sericulture involves low
investment with frequent income with 5-6 crops per annum
Once the mulberry plantation is established it will continue
to yield consistently for 15-20 years with minimum
expenditure for maintenance[1]. The sericulture sector plays
a major role in the development of the rural economy. The
industry offers employement opporunities to more than
three million people in India since many government and
private organisation are engaged in this industry.
Present status: sericulture has better prospects for growth in
the developing countries rather than in the advanced
countries. Silk production in temperate countries like Japan,

South Korea, USSR etc., is declining steadily not only


because of the high cost of labour and heavy
industrialization in these countries, but also due to climatic
restrictions imposed on mulberry leaf availability that
allows only two cocoon crops per annum. Thus, India has a
distinct advantage of practicing sericulture all through the
year, yielding a stream of about 4 6 crops as a result of its
tropical climate[2].
In India, sericulture is not only a tradition but also a living
culture. It is a farm-based, labour intensive and
commercially attractive economic activity falling under the
cottage and small-scale sector. It particularly suits ruralbased farmers, entrepreneurs and artisans, as it requires low
investment but, with potential for relatively higher returns.
It provides income and employment to the rural poor
especially farmers with small land-holdings and the
marginalized and weaker sections of the society. Several
socio-economic studies have affirmed that the benefit-cost
ratio in sericulture is highest among comparable agricultural
crops (Table )

Cost:Benefit analysis of mulberry sericulture and other competing crops.


Item

Mulberry sericulture

Sugarcane

Turmeric

Total input costs

48,659

30,575

29,610

Gross returns

96,132

60,200

55,317

Net returns

47,476

29,625

25,707

CB ratio

1:1.98

1:1.97

1:1.02

Crop period

1 year

1 year

4 5 months

Note: Data in Rs/acre/annum


Source: Dandin et al., presented at the 20th Conference of
the International Sericulture Commission, Bangalore,
December, 2005
Types of silks in India: India is the home for the
production of the vast variety of silk secreting fauna. India
achieved the unique distinction of all the five commercially
traded varieties of natural silks namely, Mulberry, Tropical
Tasar, Oak Tasar, Eri and Muga. Silk obtained from sources
other than mulberry are generally termed as non-mulberry
or Vanya silks. The bulk of the commercial silk produced in
the world is mulberry silk that comes from the domesticated
silkworm, Bombyx mori L. which feeds solely on the leaves
of the mulberry (Morus sp.) plant.

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II.
STATISTICS OF SERICULTURE IN INDIA
Indian silk industry has registered an impressive growth,
both horizontally and vertically. Plans and schemes
implemented by central and state agencies and relentless
efforts of thousands of dedicated persons in the fields of
research and extension have helped in this context. The
sericulture industry has witnessed a quantum jump in raw
silk productivity. The average yield of 25 kgs of
cocoons/100 dfls in the recent past has increased and
currently the average yields are in the range of 60 65
kgs/100 dfls[4]. The new technology, besides doubling
yields has also led to qualitative improvements in cocoon
production with considerably reduced renditta and has also
helped break the climate barrier.

Page | 145

International Journal of Advanced Engineering Research and Science (IJAERS)


[Vol-3, Issue-10, Oct- 2016]
https://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijaers/3.10.23
ISSN: 2349-6495(P) | 2456-1908(O)
The export of Indian silk products consists of finished
goods like fabrics, made-ups, ready-made garments and
furnishing materials like curtains, carpets, bed spreads,
cushion covers etc. The export of silk products has been
showing a steady growth and the export earnings showed a
rapid increase.
III.

Board, recently, is coordinating and implementing


collaborative research activities in association with National
level R&D Institutions, State Sericulture Research and
Development Institutes, Universities, Department of
Science and Technology, Department of Biotechnology,
CSIR/ICAR/IARI/IITs/IIMs and other Private and
International Research and Development Institutions to
promote applied research and development of appropriate
technology towards attaining higher quality and
productivity levels of Indian silk. R&D achievements of
CSB like technologies patented and commercialized.

FUNCTIONS OF CENTRAL SILK BOARD


(CSB, BANGALORE, GOVT OF INDIA)
Central Silk Board (CSB), Bangalore under the Ministry of
Textiles, Govt. of India is the apex body for overall
development of sericulture and silk industry in India. The
functions assigned to the Board are to promote development
IV.
STRENGTHS AND CHALLENGES OF
of the silk industry by all appropriate measures like
SERICULTURE INDUSTRY IN INDIA
R&D achievements like development of indigenous
undertaking, assisting and encouraging scientific,
mulberry varieties with highest leaf yields in the world, new
technological and economic research, improvement of
mulberry cultivation, production and distribution of healthy
bivoltine silkworm hybrids eminently suited to the tropical
regions of the country, farmer-friendly technologies, costsilkworm seed, production of quality raw silk and
effective new package of practices for cultivation of food
promotion of silk market etc. In addition, the board is
plants, rearing and reeling coupled with huge natural and
responsible for advising and reporting to the Govt. of India
man-made resources and trained manpower clearly
on all matters relating to the development of the raw silk
indicates the future prospects of sericulture industry to
industry, including the import and export of raw silk.
emerge as a promising indicator of economic development
Indian sericulture is not only vast, widely dispersed but also
for the upliftment of the socially deprived communities and
multidisciplinary in nature involving silkworm seed sector,
the downtrodden. The strengths, weakness, opportunities
cocoon sector (cultivation of food plants and silkworm
and challenges (SWOT analysis) of Indian silk industry
rearing) and post cocoon sector (silk reeling, spinning,
have been given in Table .
twisting, processing and weaving). Therefore, Central Silk
SWOT analysis of the Indian silk industry
Strengths
Weakness
Opportunities
Threats
Large production base,
availability of skills, land
and labour.

Gaps in technology transfer


and extension support.

Generation
of
rural
employment and reduction
of migration to urban areas.

Established infrastructure,
availability of silkworm
breeds / hybrids.

Inadequate
market
accessibility, poor linkage
among different stake
holders.

Liberalization policies of
Govt. of India in line with
WTO Agreements.

Low investment, short


gestation period and higher
returns.

De-centralized nature of
the
industry
inhibits
financial institute from
extending financial support
to the sector.

Reduction of production of
silk even by traditional silk
countries like Japan, USSR
etc.

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Falling
international
prices
and
heavy
dumping from China at
low prices.
Unpredictability
of
Chinas silk policies.

Inability of the silk


industry to react and
adopt to the changing
needs in terms of quality
both for the domestic
and export markets.

Page | 146

International Journal of Advanced Engineering Research and Science (IJAERS)


[Vol-3, Issue-10, Oct- 2016]
https://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijaers/3.10.23
ISSN: 2349-6495(P) | 2456-1908(O)
Easily
adoptable
technologies and strong
domestic demand-pull.

Lack of quality based


pricing system in the
market, frequent price
fluctuations and large scale
imports from China at low
prices.

V.
CONCLUSION
In India, Sericulture is mostly a village based industry
providing employement opportunities to a large section of
the population. Although Sericulture is considered as a
subsidiary occupation, technological innovation has made it
possible to take it up on an intesive scale capable of
generating adequate income. It is also capable of providing
continous income to farmers. The present global scenario
clearly indicates the enarmous opportunities for the Indian
Silk Industry[5]. Sericulture industry, which is a subsidiary
of the largest agriculture industry in India, offers a wide
range of employement opportunities.
Sericulture offers gainful employment not only the rural
masses but also for the educated youth in semi-urban and
urban areas. The export of silk goods during 2003-04 was
Rs 2779.19 crores (US $ 604.7 million). The silk goods
exports during 2005-06 was 3194.20 crores (US $ 721.53
million) showing an increase of 11% over 2004-05 which
was Rs 2879.56 crores(US $ 640.90 million)[6]. In 2011-12
the foreign exchange earned is shown decreased trend
compared to 2005-06. Effective utilization of waste
generated in the industry will help in making the sericulture
sector more viable, stable and create more employment
opportunities.
The silk production is industrial activity, is best suitable to
the educated youth to produce quality silk and to earn their
comfortable livelihood and to provide employment to
others. Chawki rearing will provide remunerative selfemployment to the rural and educated women and youth for
successful cocoon crops. The trends in international silk
production suggest that sericulture has better prospects for
growth in the developing countries rather than in the
developed countries. Being one of the largest exporter of
silk, chances for boost in the economic field is
comparatively high for our country, which in turn give new
openings to the job seekers[7].
Sericulture, in recent times, has begun to offer a wide
variety of employment and entrepreneurship options. Most
importantly, every state in India has a sericulture
department to focus on rearing of silk worms, production of
fibre and marketing. Demand for Kashmiri silk carpets has
been on the rise constantly. All this has created additional

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Garment exports are on a


steady increase with huge
employment opportunities.

Lack of awareness in the


domestic market to
respond to the demanddriven milieu.

avenues for Seri culturists. With research institutions


devising new technological processes. Sericulturists can
find employment as officers, managers in the agricultural
loan sector of nationalised as well as private banks. They
can work as a manager in Sericulture Farm, Grainage, Silk
Reeling (Filature), Silk weaving mill, Dyeing, Printing and
Spinning mill etc. as well as in various central government
sponsored schemes.
REFERENCES
[1] http://www.csb.gov.in/silk-sericulture/silk/vanyasilk/Seri Business Manual A users guide (Farm
sector), Central Silk Board publication, Bangalore
[2] G. Savithri and P. Sujathamma Enterprenaural
Opportunities in Sericulture Industry , International
Journal of Engineering, Business and Enterprise
Applications (IJEBEA), 2013, pp. 52-56.
[3] D. Gangopadhyay, Sericulture Industry in India A
Review, India Science and Technology: 2008, pp. 125.
[4] Annual Report of Central Sericultural, Research and
Training Institute, Central Silk Board, Mysore.
[5] Indian Silk, Vol. 47(5), 2008.
[6] Md. Aslam (2008) Adding value. Biotech News, Vol.
III (5), p. 9.
[7] Planning Commission Report, Article by Dr. K.
Venkatasubramanian, Member, Planning Commission,
www.planningcommission.nic.in

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