The project, implemented by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency in collaboration with the Central Silk Board and Karnataka Sericulture Department with an annual outlay of 1.5 million dollars, is currently in the second stage, where experiments results are being taken to the land.

Project coordinator Shinichi Osaka told visiting journalists from New Delhi that Japan had offered to help India in many spheres, including in sport, and new Delhi had accepted the offer in improving the silk industry as a whole.

One of the main objective of the project was to help Indian sericulturists, especially those in Karnataka, to rear bivoltine silkworms instead of the traditional multivoltine ones, project leader Kioshi Kawakami said.

Bivoltine means silk worms which rear two generations in a year and multivoltine are thoserearing many times a year. Bivoltine silkworms produce quality cocoons, which is the need of the hour for the country, besides ensuring a good yield also," RB Agawane, commissioner for sericulture development in Karnataka said.

The Japanese help in the project included bringing in of hybrid bivoltine silkworms from Tokyo. "We cannot export pure silkworm breeds from Japan. So we developed a hybrid and brought it to the country" Kawakami said. The problem couldn't be solved as simply as Kawakami suggests.

"We brought in many bivoltine hybrids and selected 2-3 strains after acclimatising them to the tropical weather in India. At least 95 per cent of the strains died unable to adapt to Indian conditions," he said.

The visiting team faced a tough time to acclitamise Japanese silkworm strains from the temperate climate in Japan to the Indian tropical climate. Then, it had faced the problem of the silkworms going into hibernation during winter.

"We have developed a technology to keep them awake and producecocoons during winter," Kawakami said. It is important for the silkworms to produce cocoons in winter since they cannot survive in summer.

Primarily, the hybrid bivoltine silkworms would help in production of better quality silk yarns. "Currently, almost all yarns are made from multivoltine cocoons. This cannot be spun into yarn by the powerloom as the warp, which is the longitudinal yarn making up a fabric, is very weak. Only handlooms can use multivoltine cocoons and this essentially prevents modernisation of the industry," Central Silk Board member secretary Arun Ramanathan said.

Currently, 4,000-5,000 tonnes of silk yarns are imported from China to meet the powerloom requirements for warp to weave fabrics. Powerloom sector consumes 60 per cent of silk yarn produced in the country.

Kawakami said hybrids were developed during the first phase of the project which started in 1991 and now under the second phase of the project from 1997, farmers were being encouraged to rear the superior bivoltinevarieties.

Since 1991, Central Silk Research and Training Institute here had developed three basic bivoltine races CSR2, CSR4 and CSR5, besides two hybrids CSR 2x4 and CSR 2x5.

"Compared to the traditional varieties, productivity of the new ones increased by 60-70 per cent," Agwane said. While 9-10 kg of cocoons of traditional multivoltine cocoons yield one kg of silk yarn, just 4-5 kg hybrid bivoltine cocoons yield one kg of silk yarn, Kawakami said. Even though, a silkworm strain which could be reared in summer had been developed, it is yet to be ratified by the Central Silk Board, he added.

Not only does the project emphasise on reaching findings of the lab to land but also insists on proper farming practice by the growers.

"We just do not allow all those interested in the project to rear the new varieties. We select only the best farmers who have a modern rearing house," Kawakami said.

Farmers had to ensure the hygiene of the surroundings in which the silkworm was being reared since the hybridvarieties were susceptible to disease. "We have also brought in change in traditional farming practice to rear the hybrids," Kawakami said adding currently 70 farmers were rearing the hybrid bivoltine varieties.

Among the methods changed in traditional rearing was doing away with the circular montages smeared with cow dungs to rear the larvae. "We found that the cow dung was the primary carrier of infection. We have asked them not to use either the traditional montages or cow dung," he said.

These have now given way to a modernised rectangular montages in which the larvae climb and start spinning the cocoons. The project is not only related to developing hybrid cocoons and reaching them to the growers but also developing new cultivation of mulberry trees, he said.

This includes better spacing to grown mulberry trees and developing a new variety. "If the programmes succeeds in producing better quality silk yarn, then there will be no need to import silk yarn from China," Agawane said. "We would like todevelop a system through this project to make other farmers follow if the present group succeeds," Ramanathan said, adding the bivoltine cocoons were fetching price ranging from Rs 180-210 per kg against Rs 130-150 per kg for multivoltine ones.