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I
INTRODUCTION
Mulberry sericulture is a labour-intensive industry in all its phases, namely, cultivation of silkworm food plants, silkworm rearing, silk reeling and other postcocoon processes such as twisting, dyeing, weaving, printing and finishing. It provides employment to approximately 58 lakh persons annually, most of them being marginal and small farmers. Micro level studies reveal (Lakshmanan et al., 1996, 1997ab, 1998ab, 1999) (Lakshmanan and Geeta Devi, 2000, 2005) that one-acre of mulberry sericulture generated around 506.20 man-days from leaf to cocoon production for one year period and assured periodical income throughout the year.
In the global context, silk accounts for about 0.2 per cent of total textile fiber production (ITC, 2000). However, in value terms, silk stands for high value exportoriented items in the world trade. India poised to reach the position of second largest silk producer after the Republic of China in the world. The country produces all the four known commercial silk varieties, viz., mulberry, tasar, eri and muga. Of the total silk production, mulberry silk alone accounted for 89 per cent during 2004-05. In spite of the annual compound growth rate of 4.93 per cent of mulberry raw silk production during 1980-81 to 2004-05, the country has to import huge quantity of raw silk from the Republic of China and other countries every year to meet the growing domestic as well as export demand (Lakshmanan, 2006). This has led to import of silk to the tune of 7,948 tonnes during 2004-05. It shows that the industry needs to augment domestic silk production to bridge the gap between demand for and supply of quality silk production in the country.
II
MULBERRY SILK PRODUCTION IN INDIA
The performance of mulberry silk sector in major silk producing states during 1980-81 to 2004-05 is presented in Table 1. It is clear from the table that Karnataka has been the leading silk producer among the traditional states with -0.90, 4.29 and 5.18 per cent annual compound growth rates in terms of area under mulberry cultivation, silk production and productivity during 1980-81 to 2004-05. Although the growth trends of mulberry acreage has been discouraging, the production and productivity of silk have shown a remarkable growth in Karnataka. It is partly due to large-scale adoption of new technologies by...