Kerala silk

Kerala is located on the south western tip of India. It has the states Tamil Nadu and Karnataka as its neighbours. The erstwhile Travancore (the State of Kerala was formed in the year 1956 on linguistic basis) was renamed as Kerala after unifying Cochin and a portion of Malabar. There are several pilgrim centres of all major religions such as Hindu, Christian and Muslim. Similarly, Kerala is popularly known as ‘God’s own country’ because of its unique nature of natural beauty and agro climatic conditions. The people are highly literate and are known for their intelligence and industriousness across the world. The Kerala model development concept is also widely acclaimed all over the world because of its peculiar economic importance especially in health and education sector. The State of Kerala has already been proved that a society with high literacy, high value of civic culture with low per-capita income can attain economic development through optimum utilisation of its resources such as land, men and natural blessings.Agriculture plays a crucial role in the Kerala economy. When compared to other States, the per-capita availability of cultivable land is low in Kerala. Stabilisation and augmentation of productivity assume critical importance, given the limited scope for increasing area under cultivation of various crops. Increase in production would be possible mainly from improvements in productivity through the use of location specific technology and modernisation of agriculture. An integrated mixed cropping pattern is practiced in the State by majority of the farmers considering the land holding size.

Sericulture is an agro-industry covering four tier process viz. (i) mulberry cultivation and leaf production (ii) silkworm rearing and cocoon production (iii) cocoon processing and silk yarn production and (iv) silk yarn processing, weaving, fabric manufacture and its marketing. The first two tiers are integrated with agriculture and the latter two tiers are part of industry. The following characteristics are also important -
* Short gestation period
* Quick and high returns
* Easy technology
* Increasing demands for products
* High employment generation potential
* Money flow from rich to poor
* Role of women and weaker sections of the society

Kerala is a relatively new entrant into sericulture field. However the state has made considerable advancements in sericulture especially bivoltine sericulture. Kerala is one of the few states in india where bivoltine sericulture is practiced to the tune of 100%. The national level bivoltine technlogy adoption is just 5% in spite of intensive promotional efforts.

SERIFED the nodal agency

Kerala State Sericulture Co-operative Federation (SERIFED) was established in 1994 as the nodal agency for implementing sericulture extension & development activities in the State. Trivandrum, the "Ever Green City of India" is the Headquarters of SERIFED. Sericulture in Kerala is based on small-holdings, low investment and family labor oriented; moderate income generating and a subsidy oriented one. The major strategies of Serifed during 2008-09 are promotion of new mulberry varieties suitable for Kerala conditions, cluster approach of sericulture development of potential areas, active involvement of local self Government institutions, development of 100% Bivoltine sericulture, implementation of women empowerment scheme etc.

District Serifed Offices & Sericulture Complexes:

Serifed operates and is linked to the farmers of the state through the 14 District Serifed Offices.Apart from these offices, there are two "Sericulture Complex" in the state - one located at Elamad in Kollam District and the other at Mylatty in Kasaragod District.

"SERISREE", a poverty eradication project

Recently Kerala has launched a poverty eradication project in the state namely "SERISREE", through intensive promotion of sericulture among the people Below Poverty Line (BPL). The federation receives financial support from the "Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana" (SGSY) of the Government of India. Under the SGSY, assistance is given to the poor families living below the poverty line in rural areas for taking up self employment. The persons taking up Self-Employment are called swarozgaris. They may take up the activity either individually or in Groups, called the Self-Help Groups. For successful Self-Employment, it is necessary to take up the right activity. For this purpose, 4 to 5 activities are selected in each Block with the help of officials, non-officials and the Bankers. These are called ‘Key Activities’, and should be such that they give the Swarozgaris an income of Rs. 2000 per month, net of Bank loan repayment.Under the SERISREE project it is expected to bring in convert|1000|acre|km2 of fresh mulberry plantations and a matching cocoon production. The entire activity is proposed to create employment opportunities to the tune of 59 lakhs man days in three years. [Kerala’s SERISREE project for poverty eradication through sericulture promotion

http://silkwormmori.blogspot.com/ ]

References