India is the second largest producer of silk (after China) in the world and has the distinction of manufacturing four varieties namely, mulberry, eri, tasar and muga silks. The country has the world monopoly golden-yellow muga silk produced from Assam. It has also a long tradition of manufacturing and producing silk textiles.
History and Development
In India silk fabrics were made in the cottage industrial sector and were exported to many countries of Middle East and Europe. Mughal emperors were very fond of silk cloths and patronised the industry in Bengal and Kashmir. However, the first silk textile mill, on modern lines, was started by the East India Company at Haora in 1832. Later on new factories also started in Karnataka (in 1845) and Kashmir (1892).
The industry suffered a setback between 1875 and 1915 due to the occurrence of the perinea disease and loss of the raw silk crop. However, it got boost up after the tariff protection granted in 1934. After independence there has been significant increase in the production of silk textiles in the country. At present there are about 300 silk textile mills in the country employing about 50,000 workers. The total production of silk yarn was 825 tons in 2002-03.
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Distribution
The states traditionally interested in sericulture development are Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Manipur and Meghalaya. Karnataka accounts for 55.65 per cent of the silk yarn production of the country followed by Madhya Pradesh (40.48%), Tamil Nadu (2.42%) and Punjab (1.45%) (Table 20.VII).
1. Karnataka
Karnataka is the largest producer of silk in the country. It produces only mulberry silk contributing about 41.4 per cent of the country’s output. Here mulberry cultivation occupies about 8,500 hectares of the agricultural land yielding about 68 lakh kg of raw silk annually. Bulk of the production comes from Bangalore, Mysore, Kolar, Mandya, Tumkur and Belgaum districts.
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Channapatna and Mysore are the main centres of silk textiles. The state-owned Channapatna mill has a capacity of 6,000 spindles. The state hardly uses 40 per cent of the total yarn produced and the rest is sent to places like Varanasi Dharmavaram, Kancheepuram, Arani, Kumbakonam and Surat.
2. West Bengal
West Bengal contributes 9.08 per cent of the total silk production of the country; most of it being of mulberry variety. The cultivation is spread over an area of 6,500 hectares mostly in Malda, Murshidabad, Birbhum, 24 Parganas, Haora and Bankura districts. There are more than 4,500 handlooms with important weaving centers at Bishnerpur, Baswa, Raghunathpurand Chak Islampur.
The reeling work is done on the traditional charkhas. The state has a silk conditioning house at Kolkata and a 100-basin filature at Madhu Ghat (Maldah district).
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3. Andhra Pradesh
The state contributes 34.6 per cent the total silk production of the country. Sericulture is carried on in Chittoor, Warangal, Karimnagar, Vishakhapatnam and Anantapur districts. There is flourishing handloom silk industry in Mahbubnagar, Karimnagar, Warangal, Adilabad and Kurnool districts.
4. Bihar-Jharkhand
Bihar (including Jharkhand) is the largest tasar silk producing state of the country. It contributes about 0.8 per cent of the total silk output of the country. Bulk of the production comes from Palamau, Hazaribag, Bhagalpur and Ranchi districts. About 1.5 lakh persons are engaged in the sericulture. Bhagalpur is an important centre of the industry.
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5. Assam
Assam specializes in the production of muga silk. Besides tasar and eri silk varieties is also produced providing employment to about 15 lakh persons. Sericulture is an important cottage industry. Bulk of the production comes from Goalpara, Kamrup, Barpeta, Nalbari and Nowgong districts of the Brahmaputra valley. The state has a flourishing handloom silk industry. A 3,000-spindle spun silk mill has been set up at Jagi Road to utilise the silk waste.
6. Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu is the fifth largest producer of raw silk (3%) in the country. The production mainly comes from Coimbatore, Dharmapuri, Nilgiris, Salem and Tirunelveli districts. The state has about 2,000 handlooms and produces about 2.4 per cent of the silk-yarn in the country.
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7. Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh
Although Madhya Pradesh (including Chhattisgarh) contributes less than 1 per cent of the total silk production of the country, it is the second largest tasar silk producer (25 per cent of India’s production) after Jharkhand. Bulk of this supply comes from Balaghat, Bastar, Bilaspur, Raigarh and Surguja districts. The state is also the second largest producer of silk yarn (3, 34,000 kgs in 2002-03 or 40 per cent of the country’s output) in India.
8. Jammu and Kashmir
The state produces about 100,000 kg of raw silk annually. Here climate is very favourable for the rearing of silk worms. Main producers are Anantnag, Baramula, Doda, Jammu, Riasi and Udhampur districts. The state has 1,030 handlooms and 148 powers looms. It mainly produces white plain silk called ‘tabby’.
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Among other important producers of raw silk and silk goods mentions may be made of Uttar Pradesh (Mirzapur and Varanasi districts), Manipur, Meghalaya, Orissa (hill districts), Maharashtra (Bhandara, Nagpur, Pune, Sangli, Solapur districts), Punjab (Gurdaspur, Ludhiana, Amritsar, Hoshiarpur and Jalandhar districts), Nagaland, Himachal Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh.
Production
India occupies second place in the silk producing countries of the world. Mulberry acreage tripled between 1971-72 and 1992-93 from 1.04 lakh hectares to 3.4 lakh hectares, while the production of silk increased almost five-fold, from 3,000 tons in 1970-71 to 14,168 tons in 1992-93.
The area under mulberry was 3 lakh ha in 1996-97 against 2.89 lakh ha in 1995-96, with the output of raw silk being 14,126 tons against 13,909 tones previously. It was further higher at 16,319 tons in 2002-03. Mulberry accounts for 90% of the total production, followed by eri 8.06%, tasar 1.74% and muga silk 0.63%.
Efforts are being made by the Central Silk Board (CSB) to increase the area under mulberry cultivation by paying special attention to the development of sericulture in the north-eastern states. An integrated muga and eri sericulture development project has been launched at a cost of Rs.95 crores during the Ninth Plan. Completion of the project will result in the expansion of mulberry plantation to 7,500 acres to produce 77.64 tons of raw silk.
The World Bank is going to provide assistance for a project covering 17 states costing Rs. 165.6 crores. The objective of the project is to improve the quality of the Indian raw silk and introduce sericulture to areas in non-traditional states.
Exports
Silk products are essential items of export to European countries, African countries and the Middle East. Although there has been shortfall in the quantity of export in recent years but the value has shown rising trends.
In 1990-91 the value of all exports was Rs.440.53 crores which reached the record high of Rs.937.54 crores in 1994.95. In the next year it fell down to Rs.846.08 crores in 1995-96 but recovered in subsequent years so as to reach Rs. 2294 crores in 2002-03. Silk textile exports constitute about three percent of total textile exports of the country.
Though the quantum-wise exports were lower by 16.3 percent, the unit value increased significantly between 1996-97 and 2002-03. Exports to Europe grew by 9.45 per cent to Rs. 364.19 crores from Rs. 298.49 crores, while those to Africa rose by 31.7 per cent to Rs. 18.46 crores from Rs. 14.02 crores. Germany, Singapore, USA, Hongkong. U.K., Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Russia and eastern African countries are the main buyers of the Indian silk goods.
Raw silk is not an important item of India’s export; Instead India imports raw silk of superfine variety from China for making Kanjeevaram and Dharmavaram varieties of saries and quality silk products.
Problems
Competition from artificial silk is the main problem faced by the Indian silk industry. The artificial silk is cheaper and better in quality. Import of better quality and cheaper raw silk from China is also detrimental for indigenous sericulture. The fluctuation of prices of raw silk badly affects the growers and the silk industry. There is no systematic testing and grading of silk as in advanced countries like Japan. The industry needs supportive measures for modernisation of silk power looms together with a curb on the import of silk fabrics.
The Central Silk Board (CSB) is formulating plans for extending the area under mulberry cultivation, improving quality and intensifying research- work. A project has been initiated with the assistance from the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for evolving suitable mulberry varieties and bivoltine silk worm races, as also technology for rearing. The CSB is focusing special attention to the growth of the industry in the north-eastern region.