India: Disease hits sericulture in Kolar district,Karnataka
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admin
PublishDate:
2006-09-29 16:55:00
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238
Sericulture activities in the district has been hit by Flacherie disease affecting silkworms and lack of the availability of disease-free quality silkworm eggs in government silk grainages.
Sericulture activities in the district has been hit by Flacherie disease affecting silkworms and lack of the availability of disease-free quality silkworm eggs in government silk grainages. This has further aggravated the problems of most of the small and marginal farmers who are dependent on sericulture.
The problems of the silk farmers do not end here. They allege that the silk market officials are giving priority to private silk grainages while distributing eggs for production. The government silk grainages get ony low-quality eggs, they charge, adding that this has resulted in the lack of availability of quality silkworm eggs.
Besides, a number of diseases like Preprine and Muscardine and hit the silkworms, the latest one being the Flacherie, if they are not stored under proper conditions in grainages. The lack of humidity in mulberry leaves also results in Flacherie, the experts say adding that this can be controlled if the humidity levels of the leaves is increased before supplying them to silk farmers.
Though the government is spending crores of rupees for the construction of silk grainages and maintenance every year, the grainages are not producing silkworm eggs completely. The grainages lack proper storage facilities also. Meanwhile, it has come to light that the output from the silkworm eggs distributed by the government grainages is lower than that of the private grainages.
Source:Industry Website