Silk production recovers from lockdown blues

Demand for silk textiles and government initiatives support sericulture growth

Moriculture, the cultivation of mulberry for the purpose of rearing silkworms (sericulture), has managed to stage a revival in Tamil Nadu despite the pandemic, thanks to the steady demand for silk textiles.

Mulberry is the preferred food crop of the Bombyx mori moth that fuels the silk industry. In Tamil Nadu, it is cultivated on 44,417.40 acres by 22,269 farmers.

“The first lockdown was severe, and so our operations were also hit. We had to close the market and also reduce silkworm egg production, as workers were asked to stay at home. But then the farmers started complaining about their mulberry crop going to waste, so we had to come up with new operating procedures,” L. Chandrasekaran, Deputy Director, Department of Sericulture, told The Hindu.

The Tiruchi regional office of the Sericulture Department has 10 districts under its jurisdiction — Ariyalur, Karur, Mayiladuthurai, Nagapattinam, Perambalur, Pudukottai, Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Tiruchi and Namakkal.

According to figures published in a recent policy note on the sector by the Ministry of Handlooms and Textiles, Tamil Nadu is the leading State in terms of bivoltine (white) raw silk production.

Bivoltine cocoons grown from hybrid silkworms produce at least 1,500 metres of silk as opposed to 900 metres from multivoltine (yellow) cocoons. Out of the total 1,834 metric tonnes (MT) of raw silk produced during 2020-2021, 1754MT was bivoltine silk.

Moriculture has boomed in Pudukottai, Tiruchi, Thanjavur, Ariyalur and Perambalur, said Mr. Chandrasekharan.