|
Kerala
hopes to leverage bivoltine advantage to boost silk market pie
E-Tex
Staff - Thiruvananthapuram
After
stepping up mulberry production by 65 per cent during the Ninth
Plan, Kerala - so far a silk-consumer state - is set to make a maiden
toehold on the silk trade. To identify the most viable market spaces
in silk garment trade, fashion designers from National Institute
of Fashion Technology (NIFT), weavers, traders, exporters and bankers
will meet on a brainstorming session in Thiruvananthapuram on October
21 and 22. For the first time, Kerala’s recent strides in mulberry
farming will be matched by appropriate industry linkages, Mr D Prashanth,
managing director, Serifed (Kerala State Sericulture Co-operative
Federation) stated, “This is where the bulk of the Rs 20 crore
earmarked for sericulture in the Tenth Plan will go,” he adds.
Unlike the traditional silk producers Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh
and Tamil Nadu, the mulberry production is yet to get the benefit
of Rs 23 crore assistance and hands-on support from Japanese International
Co-operation Agency (JICA). However the pace of growth of mulberry
farming is becoming too significant to be ignored. By 2002-2003,
Kerala is set to attain a production of 110 tonnes of cocoon and
11 tonnes of silk yarn, Mr Prasanth says.
One
technical advantage for Kerala is the focus of its production on
bivoltine cocoons as against the mix of bivoltine and multivoltine
cocoon production practices in traditional silk manufacturing states
like Karnataka. Kerala’s silk cocoon production is 100 per
cent bivoltine. In ordinary trading parlance, this would mean that
silk from Kerala would somewhat lack the lustre that is necessary
for the bulk of the domestic market, but would be high in thickness
and neatness that is crucial for the export market. “At B-2
grade in neatness, the 20-22 denear silk yarn from Kerala has international
quality erhaps unmatched by those available in the domestic market,”
says Mr P Joy, silk yarn expert. With about Rs 75-crore silk sarees
pile up causing anxiety to the country’s textile trade, Serifed
is thinking twice about pushing its ‘Keral Saree’ product.
However, according to its market analysis, the saree weaving designs
with motifs drawn from the state’s own ethnic repository has
an unfailing demand within the state. According to Victor Thomas,
chairman, Serifed, the initial market perception is that it is the
silk furnishing cloth that is going great guns in the export market.
“The
results of the workshop would decide whether the state’s growing
yarn output and weaving industry should cater to the readymade market,
furnishing market or to the sarees,” he said.
|
An
experiment in adaptation of wild and non-wild silk on cashew
plantation in Orissa has yielded encouraging results, according
to official sources.
Two field trials are presently on and the result available
so far is indicative of a grand success, the sources told
PTI here recently.
Once tassar eco-races were adapted to cashew it would revolutionise
tassar sericulture in the entire country, the sources said
adding it would benefit a much larger population by gainful
engagement in horticulture sector and cashew farmers would
get three additional silk crops along with the normal cashew
harvest.
Orissa also had initiated a proposal for developing the dwarf
variety of sal (shorea robusta), the traditional host plant
for tassar, by use of modern techniques of genetic engineering
and tissue culture.
The proposal mooted by the state government had been converted
into an action plan by the Central Silk Board, Bangalore and
the latter had requested the Forest Research Institute, Dehradun,
to undertake the task.
Time is not far when sericulture farmers will grow a dwarf
variety sal in their wasteland and get a hefty return by rearing
of tassar eco-race as a household activity, they said.
|
|
E-Mail
Print