BHAGALPUR: With the world increasingly turning to things organic and China and Thailand substantially eating into the global silk market, Bhagalpur is all set to give a big thrust to its silk industry by going organic. Bhagalpur produces and exports some of the best tussars in India.
The directorate of handloom and sericulture, department of industries, government of Bihar, gripped with the challenges thrown by China, Thailand and other countries that produce organic silk, is going for commercial production of this variant of silk in a public private partnership.
For starters, the directorate has taken up farming of tussar food plants like arjuna and asan trees. The trees are being reared in more than 350 hectares of land under Katoria and Bounsi blocks in Banka district in Bhagalpur under a joint venture involving the Central Silk Board, the government of India and the directorate of handloom and sericulture.
“The land which is being used for growing the trees are barren and arid,” said industries department sources, adding that nearly 15,000 to 20,000 cocoons could be produced on each hectare. “This could produce about 20 kg of silk yarns. The cost of cultivation of trees would be around Rs 16,000 to Rs 18,000 per hectare,” they said.
Organic silk is a natural product that contains no harmful chemicals or artificial substances and is soothing and healthy. It also has anti-inflammatory benefits.
Organic silk is produced by silkworms, which produce cocoons and grow on arjuna/asan trees. Cocoons feed on leaves that are grown without the application of any chemical or exposure to insecticides, pesticides or synthetic fertilizers. Silk worms possess especially modified salivary glands called sericteries which produce “fibroin”, a clear, viscous, protein-rich fluid.
Secretions in the form of long and continuous filament, harden on exposure to air and form twin filaments. Another gland in silk worms secrete a sticky binding fluid called “sericin”, which binds the filaments of fibroin together. The silk worm, during its life-cycle, rotates its body in the form of figure “eight” some 3,00,000 times to construct a cocoon that generates nearly a km of silk filament. After processing, it is fabricated into yarns. S B Gupta, assistant director, industries (silk), said, “Organic silk is produced by cocoons reared on forest tress and fed with leaves that are natural organic plants (NOP), grown with vermi-compost without the help of pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Vermi-compost (bio-fertilizer) is produced by earthworms feeding on biological waste and plant residue,” he said.
Read more:Â Bhagalpur to produce organic silk – The Times of India