ADILABAD: While tussar silk is one of the most sought-after fibres in the world owing to its rich texture and natural colour, it is also one of the rarest forms of natural fibre. Tussar is now grown in many States across India, and often by tribals. However, tribals only see a meagre part of the returns while tussar sarees sell for thousands in national and international markets.
Similarly, in the tribal areas of the erstwhile Adilabad district, there is a huge scope for rearing silkworms, whose cocoons are used to make the strands of the Tussar silk fabric. To avoid the middlemen, the Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA) and the Sericulture Department are encouraging farmers to grow cocoons and providing them with marketing facilities to sell their products.
The farmers, who grow silkworms by feeding them on the leaves of Nalla Maddi and Yerra Maddi (Terminalia Arjuna) trees, are earning Rs 40, 000 to Rs 50,000 per annum. The traders in Chennur market pay the farmers Rs 3,810 per 1,000 cocoons while the price is expected to go up to Rs 4,000 this year.
Jaik Lachhu, a tribal farmer of Eddulabandham in Kotapalli mandal, got a yield of 18,005 cocoons, while another from the same village, Pendari Chenna, produced 26,600 with support from the sericulture officials. They grow two varieties of silkworms — Bivoltane as the first crop and Trivoltane as the second crop.
The Sericulture Department has set up 15 centres in Mancherial district to procure cocoons from the tribal farmers. To encourage silkworm cultivation, the Union government has given Rs 2.3 lakh from the Tribal Sub Plan funds for the construction of each procurement centre.
Parvathi Rathod, Assistant Director of the Sericulture Department (Mancherial district), tells TNIE that for the first time, the farmers registered a record yield of 40 lakh tussar silk cocoons this time. More than 800 farmers in Vemanpelli, Kotapalli, Kannepalli and Nennal mandals of Mancherial district and Bejjur and Koutala mandals in Kumurambheem Asifabad district are cultivating cocoons in 3,100 hectares of land.
Traders from Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Odisha come to buy the cocoons sold in an open auction in Chennur every year.
ITDA project officer K Varun Reddy recently visited the Chennur market and interacted with the farmers about the silk cocoon cultivation methods adopted by them. He also released 50 per cent subsidy to the farmers for growing cocoons.