The Hindu : Karnataka News : ‘Give silk farmers benefits that agriculturists get’

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Karnataka

Karnataka

‘Give silk farmers benefits that agriculturists get’

Staff Correspondent

Sericulture: Central Silk Board chairman H. Hanumanthappa speaking at the Reshme Krishi Mela in Chitradurga on Saturday.

Chitradurga: The Central Silk Board chairman H. Hanumanthappa has said that the Board has urged the Central and the State Governments to extend to silk farmers all financial benefits given to agriculture and horticulture farmers. He said this after inaugurating the State-level Reshme Krishi Mela, jointly organised by the Board and the State Government’s Sericulture Department, at Maraghatta village here on Saturday.

He said that financial benefits such as interest waiver and loan at low interest rates which were being given to agriculture farmers should be extended to silk farmers. The Central Government, however, is trying to provide better facilities to silk farmers so that productivity can be increased which will in turn help farmers earn more, he added.

During the mela, a number of farmers, mainly from the North Karnataka region, demanded setting up of markets where silk production was high.

At present, they are incurring a lot of transportation expenses as they have to transport cocoons to Ramanagaram and other places. Mr. Hanumanthappa assured the farmers that the Government had not problems in setting up markets in districts which had buyers. “At the moment, there are a lot of buyers in Bangalore, Mysore and nearby areas due to which markets have been set up there,” he said.

The Board intends to expand the silk market to non-traditional districts of North Karnataka region. The quantity of silk produced in Bangalore and Devanahalli was depleting and it is essential to expand business to other parts of State where farmers would be encouraged to take up sericulture. The Board has set the target of increasing the silk production to 26,000 metric tonnes this year from the present 19,000 metric tonnes.

Around 1.53 lakh metric tonnes of silk were produced in the world, of which the share of India is around 19,000 metric tonnes making it the second largest producer of silk after China, he informed.

Karnataka is the largest producer of silk in the country with the production reaching over 8,000 metric tonnes annually, he added.

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