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Eri silk to be promoted across the country
Agencies - Coimbatore
With large companies, including international ones, evincing keen interest in
finer counts of eri silk, the Central Silk Board (CSB) has drawn up a major
project to enhance its production across the country, a top board official stated.
Eri silk, mostly produced in north eastern states, can be blended with other
natural fibres, wool and cotton and utilised for manufacturing fashion products,
and enquiries were tremendous, Mr P Joy Oommen, member secretary and chief executive
officer of CSB, said.
Saying that about 1,300 to 1,400 tonnes of eri silk was being produced annually
in the country, Mr Oommen said that the board has set a target to enhance the
production at least to 1,800 tonnes by the turn of 10th plan. Since pupae of
eri, grown on castor and tapioca trees, was edible and consumed by population
of north eastern states, the board, realising the potential had drawn up a plan
to develop finer counts of yarn from this silk, for wider use. A section of
the population in north eastern states, Bihar and Jharkhand were at present
making items like shawls, using coarse spun yarns, he said.
As part of the pilot project, the board has selected a few villages in Salem
and nearby areas in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, where tapioca
and castor were grown aplenty and naturally, Mr Oommen said. The farmers in
these areas would be given training in rearing, by providing them eggs and depending
on the success it would be expanded to other areas.
Saying that domestic potential of eri silk was unexplored so far, Mr Oommen
said that there was tremendous export potential as fashion products, blended
with this silk, displayed at various exhibition, attracted larger crowds and
appreciation. The board was taking a cautious approach to promote this silk,
though this was easier to rear compared to mulberry silk and provides employment
to large number of women, Mr Oommen, here in connection with a national symposium
on ‘Recent Trends in Applied Biology,’ said.
| To achieve fastness and precision in both mulberry
and silkworm breeding, tools and techniques of biotechnology should be exploited,
a senior official of Mysore-based Central Sericultural Research and Training
Institute (CSRTI) said. By exploiting such potential areas, one could effectively
manage silkworm and mulberry diseases, besides improvement in feed quality,
the CSRTI director Dr S B Dandin said while addressing the ‘National
Symposium on Recent Trends in Applied Biology’ here.
Despite developing a series of technologies, the
productivity of leaf, cocoon, silk, etc had remained stagnant over large
areas in the country, he said. Saying that production cost in India remained
higher than the competitive rates of other countries like China and Brazil,
Dr Dandin attributed this mainly to poor water and nutrient level, deficit
in supply of quality eggs and use of poor traditional reeling devices.
The two-day symposium was jointly being organised by the Regional Sericultural
Research Station, Salem and Avinashillingam deemed university, here.
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