Bivoltine Sericulture In India.

The efforts made by Government of India  to develop Bivoltine sericulture in India through different projects programmes  like NSP/JICA  enable CSB  to develop  the suitable Mulberry varieties, package of practices, silkworm breeds like  CSR2 x CSR4, CSR4 x CSR5,  CSR18 x CSR19 appropriate Rearing methodology,  disease management, improved reeling technologies  suitable for the tropical climate of peninsular India.. These technologies were large scale demonstrated with 3700 farmers and 298 reelers in the Southern States and as a result, the bivoltine silk production in the country has increased significantly. The raw silk in India increased from 366 MT in 1998-99 to 1685 MT in 2011-12 registering an annual compound growth rate of 11.62%. The bivoltine silk accounted for just 2.57% of the total silk production of the country in 1998-99, which has increased to 7.15% in 2011-12.

Enthused by the achievements made under JICA programmes for promotion of Bivoltine in India, Govt. of India under its XII Five Year Plan (2012-13 to 2016-17) has given emphasis on generation of employment particularly to the economically weaker sections of the rural areas through promotion of  import substitute Bivoltine silk  through implementation of catalytic Development Programme (CDP), The main focus on mulberry sector would be to enhance the bivoltine silk (3A grade and above) production from the current production level of 1685 MT to 5000 MT with an ambitious increase of 197% (Plan to Plan). To achieve this challenging task, the XII Plan proposes for a strategic shift in the promotion of bivoltine sericulture in the areas of research, extension, seed production, cocoon production practices, marketing, credit facilitation, policy options and increased participation of stakeholders in decision making areas.  

Keeping the extension system formulated in the project as base, Central Silk Board in its XIIth Plan (2012-17) proposed to formulate about 179 clusters all over India.

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