India : Silk Sector To Focus On Bivoltine Sericulture

With the high fashion-centric European customers demanding finer silk and the competition looming large from China once the global textile quota regime is terminated by 2004, the Indian silk industry is gearing itself by shifting its focus from traditional mulberry silk production to high-quality, high-yielding bivoltine sericulture on a bigger scale.

In this changing scenario, the past constraints such as non-availability of appropriate bivoltine sericulture technology, silkworm breeds suitable for the tropical conditions of India, inadequate services and support mechanism had been overcome, thanks to the combined efforts of the Central Silk Board (CSB), the Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA) and the Sericulture Department of the State governments of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu which have taken up the project on a larger scale.