Punjab Horticulture Minister Chetan Singh Jodamajra has launched a new initiative by releasing the department’s logo for silk products. Meanwhile, Chetansingh Jodamajra has also announced that all possible efforts will be made to double silk production in the state by the end of 2025. During a state-level function organized on Silk Day at Magsipa, he said that sericulture is practiced in about 230 villages in semi-hill districts of Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur, Pathankot and Rupnagar of the state.
Chetan Singh Jodamajra said that 1200 to 1400 silkworm farmers are involved in this business. He said that mainly two types of silk are produced in the state, bivoltine mulberry and Eri silk. 30,000 to 35,000 kg of mulberry silk (tutti) is produced annually from 1000 to 1100 oz of mulberry silk seeds and 5000 to 8000 kg of eri silk (tutti) is produced annually from 200 oz of eri silk seeds.
The cabinet minister said that the profession is taken up by people living below the poverty line, landless or with little land in the state and a silkworm farmer earns Rs 40,000 to 50,000 annually, which is very low.
The Horticulture Minister said that sericulture requires a lot of labor and farmers do not get fair prices. He said that silk seeds will be prepared in government farms and made available to farmers at affordable rates to reduce costs. He said that the re-opening of Punjab Government’s only silk seed production center at Dalhousie is an important step taken in this direction.
Talking about the fair price of silk production to increase farmers’ income, Chetansingh Jodamajra said that the government led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann will process cocoons by setting up its own reeling unit so that silk farmers can get higher prices. for production. Jodamajra said that a reeling unit is being set up in Pathankot to produce silk thread from cocoons in the state. Starting this unit will increase the income of silk farmers by 1.5 to 2 times.
Addressing the function, Special Chief Secretary (Horticulture) K.A.P. Sinha said that there are total 13 government sericulture farms in the state. Along with the establishment of basic infrastructure in these farms, the technical staff of the department is providing necessary facilities to the silkworm farmers such as planting, distribution of silk seeds to the silkworm farmers, assistance related to silkworm rearing and cocoon marketing.
Horticulture director Shailinder Kaur said that the sericulture business in Punjab is based on the labor of poor people and this business can be developed on a large scale. He said that many efforts are being made by Horticulture Department to develop this business and increase the income of silk farmers.
The Horticulture Minister interacted with silkworm farmers and heard their problems and assured that soon its own silk seed production center will be started in the state and these seeds will be made available to the farmers at high cost so that they do not face hardship. Cost of procuring seeds from other states, technical problems, transportation costs and problems like seed wastage are not faced.
