Silk production on the wane in the State

KOCHI: The land under silk production in the state has declined by more than   50 per cent in the last decade, according to the statistics released by the Central Silk Board. The area under silk production has gone down from 3,297 hectares in 2001-02 to 1,604 in 2009-10. In the same period, the number of sericulture villages in the state has  dwindled by more than 50 per cent, from 397 to 125. “This is despite the fact that the state has a favourable climatic condition,  round-the-year market, good pricing and high demand,” Central Silk Board former deputy director T D Koshy said. Experts place a series of factors as being responsible for the decline, the  most frequently pointed among them is the decline in farm labour. The lure of profit from other fields like rubber production and the lack of facilities for silk marketing have affected the silk production.The experts at the Silk Board are of the opinion that there is much that the  state government can do to better the situation. “The administration in the industry must be changed. Silk production cannot  be profitable in Kerala if one employs labourers from outside. Families or  corporative societies can pool in and work in units, something on the Kudumbasree model,” an expert from the Silk Board in Palakkad said.The operations of the silk industry in the state was looked after by the  State Sericulture Cooperative Federation (SERIFED) until last year. Since  then, the state government has liquidated the organisation and redeployed the staff to Local Self-Government Department  (LSGD) and Kerala Khadi Board. “The SERIFED had a problem of excess staff and at the LSGD, we had a problem of staff shortage ,” Rajesh Kumar Singh IAS, secretary of LSGD, said. The move has several other aspects too. “The  SERIFED had offices in every district. But, silk production is not possible  everywhere. There are two things to be noted - agricultural land and market. In Kerala, marketing facilities are very less. So, the industry will be successful only in areas where there is a market available close by. Moreover, there must be enough land. Only districts like Palakkad, Idukki and Wayanad have these qualities. The state  government must concentrate on these areas for the industry to be successful,” a senior official of the Central Silk Board said .