The reduction of rural poverty continues to be a paramount goal of the developing countries like India as the majority of the poor population still resides in the countryside. The World Bank, for example, estimates that more than 70 % of the world’s poor live in rural areas. So far, various strategies have been pursued to address this concern and among the major ones is rural employment creation. The agriculture sector, however, has been contending with a number of factors that have limited its potential for generating new jobs in rural areas.
Those factors may include the small land holding size, insufficient capital and investment incentives, the inadequate farm infrastructure, limited market and stagnant prices of agricultural products. It is therefore necessary to focus on a broader spectrum of the rural economy. The establishment of rural based industries like sericulture, in particular, can be very effective in creating new job opportunities and providing supplemental income. Being a rural agro-based labour intensive industry, this sector can also play vibrant role in checking migration from rural to urban areas.
Consider the success story of a farmer in the production of high grade bivoltine cocoons. Mr. Ghulam Ahmad Wani has made substantial growth by adopting recommended packages of practices in sericulture in a systematic way. He is the progressive silkworm rearer of the district for the last four decades. He is sixty-year old engaged in silkworm rearing right from his childhood. Whole of his family, along with his ancestors, are involved in cocoon production for the last hundred years. The income generated after selling the cocoons was and is the only source of income to his family. During the silkworm rearing, whole family of the rearer i.e., wife, son and daughter-in-laws is involved. During the year 2011-12, he has reared 13 ounces of silkworm seed during the spring season with a record production of 728 Kgs of green cocoons. The income generation after selling of the cocoons was 1.31 lakhs. During the course of time, he has also developed his own silkworm seed incubation centre at home. He has motivated farmers of his village as well as neighboring villages to take up bivoltine sericulture.
According to him, “No crop can give better returns than sericulture’. In addition to it, he has planted more than four hundred mulberry plants in his own land, which in long run will serve as a major leaf reservoir for his silkworm rearing. For his interest and efforts to produce high grade quality bivoltine cocoons, Honorable Minister for Agriculture, Mr. Ghulam Hassan Mir awarded him the best silkworm rearer of the state in 2009. To sustain his interest and improve cocoon productivity and quality along with the neighboring community, Sericulture Development Department, Govt. of J&K has provided him one silkworm rearing shed and one silkworm rearing kit under C.D.P scheme. Due to the technical and infrastructural support provided to him by the Directorate of Sericulture, Govt. of J&K under C.D.P scheme, the farmer has undertaken the rearing of silkworms in August-September 2011 also, and has harvested 220 Kgs of cocoons which has augmented his income worth Rs. 0.37 lacs. He has resorted to increased larval spacing, regular proper disinfection and feeding to enhance the cocoon yield per ounce.
He has adopted mechanization in sericulture to minimize labour and time. He opined that sericulture is highly profitable by adoption of cost-effective technologies and uses the resources on rational basis through recycling farm and sericultural wastes. He has added decomposed sericultural wastes and silkworm fecal matter to the agricultural land to increase the fertility, which in turn has increased his vegetable and crop production and ultimately his annual income. He actively participates in providing guidance to fellow farmers to take up bivoltine sericulture for stability and enhanced socio-economic status.

Lastupdate on : Fri, 20 Apr 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Fri, 20 Apr 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sat, 21 Apr 2012 00:00:00 IST