Sericulture has bright prospect of creating rural employment

RAJSHAHI, May 24(BSS): Sericulture has bright prospects of creating employment for the rural people and alleviating poverty through its expansion and development by utilising existing natural resources. As an agro-based and labour-intensive industry, sericulture can involve a huge number of people who depend on agriculture. Both male and female, irrespective of age, could be used in the silk cultivation. Besides, silk cocoon and raw silk have been adjudged as cash crop like other agricultural crops and cereals. Talking to the news agency, Prof Dr Sawdagor Mahfuzur Rahman said significant number of high-yielding mulberry plants, silk-cocoon races and sericulture and reeling technologies were innovated aimed at development and countrywide expansion of the silk industry. In this context, he said both the topographical and socio-economic conditions of the country are suitable for sericulture, but it could not flourish as an industry due to various reasons. Prof Rahman, a senior teacher of Zoology Department of Rajshahi University, however, said importance should be given to farmers- level transfer and dissemination of the high-yielding mulberry trees and silk- cocoons and other relevant technologies so far innovated in the laboratory researches. Apart from this, stress should also be laid on proper uses of the plant varieties and modern technologies at the growers' level that is very essential to attain cherished goals in this field. Meanwhile, he mentioned that increased domestic production of yarn can help revitalize the traditional silk sector, said silk businessmen. Monzur Faruque Chowdhury, a silk industrialist, said the glorious silk sector is now facing an embarrassing situation due to excessive price of foreign silk yarn and abnormal decline in its local production. He, however, asserted that the local yarn demand could be easily met through local production. "This is high time to devise ways and means to boost the grassroots yarn production after a proper use of the existing natural and other infrastructural resources side by side with minimising the existing obstacles," said Monzur Chowdhury, owner of Usha Silk Factory here. He said time has come to increase the volume of silk alongside bringing back the farmers to their ancestral profession through boosting the domestic production. Stressing the need for enhancing the volume of production of raw silk, he called for creating skilled manpower in production and marketing of silk to regain its lost glory.