TIRUPATI: Sericulture Commissioner C.S. Ramalakshmi has appealed to bankers to liberally finance the sericulture sector, as it is poised to grow at a geometric proportion. "Financing the growing sector is a good business proposition for the banks too," she noted.

Addressing bank officials and progressive farmers from the Rayalaseema districts of Anantapur, Chittoor, Kadapa and Kurnool at a workshop organised by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) here on Tuesday, she said that as the State was second only to Karnataka in silk production, while Tamil Nadu was slowly picking up, the conducive soil condition and growth rate here were all set to push the State to the top slot.

Investment-intensive

In her keynote address, she said that the forward-looking farmers had the right technical knowhow and were ready to take to sericulture, while expecting the Government's hand in providing major inputs like seed (egg), marketing and working capital. Though sustainable and rewarding, mulberry cultivation would need an initial investment of Rs.1 lakh per acre, which was forcing the farmers to view it as an `investment-intensive' crop, despite the subsidies and other forms of support.

She felt that it was at this point that the bankers had a role to intervene and provide the `initial oxygen,' assuring them that recovery would not be a problem as the return on investment here was much higher than crops like paddy, tobacco, cotton and sugarcane.

Perennial demand

She asserted that silk commodities would have a perennial demand in the country, whose culture was intrinsically woven with silk and hence the risk of business failure was minimal. She said that even farmers were convinced that sericulture was a risk-free avocation and hence the bankers need not worry about recovery. She mooted the idea of setting up recovery centres at marketyards where the farmers come to sell their stocks. As the internal rate of return had already been worked out by NABARD, it would be a `sound business proposition' for bankers to lend to this sector, she concluded.

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