Government to promote cocoon production

AHMEDABAD: Cocoons prices firm up by 20% to Rs 220 per Kg with demand increasing from the domestic market.

Between April 2011 and March 2012, there was a significant drop in the prices of cocoons in various cocoon markets from about Rs 275 per Kg to about Rs 175 per kg as a result of reduction in prices of raw silk in the domestic market.

"The government has taken steps to improve productivity of cocoons and raw silk, strengthen the extension support to the farmers and develop improved seeds and host plants. Apart from it we have allowed import of modern automatic reeling machines and dupion reeling machines along with their accessories and packages at concessional duty of customs to bring down cost of production, and make the sericulture and reeling sector competitive," said Minister of State for Textiles, Panabaaka Lakshmi in the Lok Sabha on Monday.

The demand supply gap of raw silk is being met through imports, mainly from China. The Government intends to enhance domestic production of silk through strengthening the existing programme, centrally sponsored "Catalytic Development Programme" (CDP), being implemented by the government through Central Silk Board (CSB), for development of sericulture and silk industry.

CSB has a proposal to establish an institute for silk and biomaterial technology within the CSB Campus at Kodathi in Bangalore, in collaboration with Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology. CSB has taken up the proposal with the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology and has identified the land for the above.

The estimated demand-supply gap of silk in the country in last 5 years is given below:

(p) Provisional