IT boom in Bangalore has forced the Karnataka government to create new sericulture clusters in non-traditional parts of the state in a bid to maintain its monopoly in the Indian silk industry.
?After IT boom in 2000, majority of traditional sericulture tract in and around Bangalore and Mysore have disappeared, primarily to accommodate IT and other allied activities,? Central Sericultural Research and Training Institute director SB Dandin said. To offset the loss due to decline in sericulture tract, the state government has taken steps to develop sericulture clusters in non-traditional areas like Chittradurga, Haveri, Belgaum and Bagalkot in North Karantaka, he said.
In Bangalore-Mysore belt alone, nearly 25,000 farming families who were cultivating mulberry on 40,000 acres have sold their lands for industrial purpose, Dandin said. In fact, India?s best silk farmers with high productivity technologies were present in the traditional areas like Anekkal, Attibale, Devanahalli, Sarjapur, Chandapura, Hosakotte, Bidadi, Ramanagaram, Kanakapura, Nelamangala, Haravanahalli and Kolar – all located around Bangalore. ?Now, the majority of farmers in this belt are not practicing sericulture farming,? he added.
In the last seven years, the raw silk production in Karnataka stagnated in the range of 8,000 tonne to 9,000 tonne per annum due to reduction in area and acute drought in 2003-05. Although the government could not improve the production as in other neighbouring states like Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, the new technologies invented by the CSRTI has at least helped Karnataka to maintain its production at a stable level despite reduction in land holdings, Dandin said. The CSRTI?s techniques have increased the productivity of cocoons to 60 kg per 100 dfls (disease free layings) from 40 kg per dfls, hence maintaining the overall production in the reduced land holdings.
According to official sources, the government has set a target to increase the area covered under sericulture to 1.30 lakh hectares at the end of Eleventh Plan period from the current 97,647 hectare.