SKUAST-K adopts Chainabal village to expand silkworm rearing

Srinagar, April 10: In order to give fillip to Sericulture Industry in Kashmir, the College of Temperate Sericulture, Mirgund under SK-University of Agriculture Sciences and Technology has adopted Chainabal village in Baramulla as a model village to expand silkworm rearing.
Prof. (Dr) M. F. Baqual, Associate Dean at CoTS, SKUAST said they have adopted the village near Mirgund and after the adoption the impact was to such an extent that there was approximately 100 percent increase in cocoon production.
“In furtherance with the village adoption program, College of Temperate Sericulture, Mirgund which is affiliated with SKUAST-Kashmir has been working very hard to help the rural masses by way of technology dissemination and its adoption,” he said.
Dr. Baqual said Baramulla is the second most promising sericulture district in Jammu and Kashmir. However, during the recent past, farmers have shown their reluctance towards this profession owing to multifarious reasons.
“Keeping this in view, CoTS, Mirgund decided to go for the technology intervention in the nearby village Chainabal in Singhpora block in Baramulla district,” he said.
As per the available census of 2011, 2558 persons live in 261 households. “The main occupation of the people in this village is agriculture however, due to the impact of erratic weather and lack of proper irrigation facilities, the people are facing hard time and are forced to live from hand to mouth,” Dr. Baqual said.
To address the issue, a survey program was initiated in collaboration with the Sericulture Development Department and the primary data with respect to various issues pertaining to sericulture was collected from the identified rearing households.
“Having identified the constraints, the program schedule was devised to upscale their rearing infrastructure coupled with provision of technical support to the families,” he said.
Chainabal is the second village in district Baramulla to be adopted by SKUAST-Kashmir. Earlier, it had adopted Rambail village in 2018 which had also witnessed great progress.
Dr. N. A. Ganaie Associate Professor at CoTS said following the adoption many activities were performed in the village including the distribution of mulberry plants and low cost rearing hut technology for silkworm rearing.
“To create the mulberry reserves near the rearing households mulberry plants of elite genotypes were distributed among the beneficiaries free of cost. This has helped to enrich the mulberry wealth in an around the adopted village, thus broadening the scope for further expansion of silkworm rearing in the area,” he said.
Dr. Ganaie said low-cost rearing huts were fabricated from locally available materials and used for silkworm rearing near the farmer’s residential houses in the adopted village.
“The hut has dimensions of 15x12x8 feet (480sq ft) with 3 tiers. The beneficiaries were able to harvest a cocoon crop of 50 Kgs per oz of silkworm seed fetching them returns of about Rs.33000 after putting efforts for 25 days only,” he said.
Regarding distribution of rearing inputs to silkworm reares, Dr. Ganaie said rearing equipment like trays, stands, silkworm bed disinfectants, polythene, gunny cloth, bamboo etc. were provided to the silkworm rearers in the adopted village.
“These rearers were given technical know-how about the method of application of the bed disinfectants and other equipment. The performance of the bed disinfectant in the field was monitored by the scientists of this College as well as by the officials of Sericulture Development Department, J&K UT,” he said.
The consequent impact of this intervention was that rearers were able to harvest a good cocoon crop which resulted in improvement in their income.
“In addition, material required for fabrication of low-cost rearing huts was also distributed among the farmers free of costs,” Dr. Ganaie said.
Awareness programs through effective demonstrations and lecture series were conducted in the adopted village for capacity building of farmers which helps immensely to upgrade the technical skills of the beneficiaries.
“Sericulture, the rearing of silkworms for ultimate production of silk fibres has become a promising rural activity in India because of its minimum gestation period, minimal investment, maximum employment potential and quick turnover on investments. Hence, has been identified as a potent tool for rural poverty mitigation,” Dr Ganaie said.