A Profile of Sericulture with Special Reference to West Bengal

Sericulture is an agro-based labour intensive cottage industry. This industry has multi-dimensional aspects including cultivation and maintenance of host plants, rearing of silkworm larvae, reeling of silk extruded by the matured larvae, weaving and printing of woven silk. Silk was originated in China in around 3000 B.C. India is the only country of the world which produces all four types of silk, viz., Tasar, Eri, Muga and Mulberry silk and is the second largest silk producing country of the world next to China. At present almost 6 million people are engaged in different activities of this industry. This industry can provide remunerative employment of 13 persons/hectare/year. Major mulberry silk producing states of India are Karnataka (7301 MT), Andhra Pradesh (5084 MT), West Bengal (1520 MT), Tamil Nadu (443 MT), Jammu and Kashmir (90 MT) and others (181 MT). West Bengal is one of the major traditional states of mulberry silk production in India. Malda, Murshidabad and Birbhum are the major tradional districts of Sericulture in West Bengal.