With more than 2,000 acres of land under mulberry plantation and 2,000 farmers engaged in it, silk yarn production has come of age in the last four years in Pune district.
Concentrated in the talukas of Daund, Baramati and Indapur, last year Pune district had produced 1.6 tonnes of silk yarn for the domestic market.
The rise in the silk production is a recent development, as four years back only 100 acres of land in the district was under mulberry cultivation. “It was the personal efforts of the then director of the department of sericulture, S D Kalinthe that made the change. Back then, he had undertaken a massive awareness drive for popularisation of sericulture,” stated K D Zari, assistant director of sericulture Pune region.
Requiring almost half the water required by sugar cane, and also minimum investments, the popularity of sericulture is on the rise, with Zari, confident that by the end of this year, more than 3,000 acres of land coming under mulberry plantation.
Unlike sugarcane, sericulture does not seem to have a permanent infrastructure in form of a nodal market for the farmers to sell their produce.
As of now, the farmers directly sell their produce to the government or the buyers directly. Zari confided that very soon the government would stop purchasing the products to let the private players develop the market.
“The major players in the market are from Karnataka and West Bengal. We are confident, that once the government withdraws, more players will come in the play,” he stated.
