SERICULTURE: BIOECONOMICAL

PROSPECTS & CHALLENGES

Student name: Tintu Johnson

Course name: Biodiversity & Bioprospecting

Program: IBT Sem:1st

Faculty: Dr. Subhash Chandra Diyundi

Dr. Biswarup Basu

HISTORY OF SILK

A Chinese tale of the discovery of the silkworm's silk was by an ancient empress Lei Zu, the wife of the Emperor.

She was drinking tea under a tree when a silk cocoon fell into her tea and the hot tea loosened the long strand of silk.

As she picked it out and started to wrap the silk thread around her finger, she slowly felt a warm sensation.

When the silk ran out, she saw a small larva. She realized that this caterpillar larva was the source of the silk.

She taught this to the people and it became widespread.

Chinese Empress Drinking tea

under a tree

Silkworm

cocoon falls

into hot tea

Silk strand

unravels and

larva exposed

Sericulture

SERICULTURE

Sericulture, or silk farming, is the rearing of silkworms for the production of raw silk.

Bombyx mori is the most widely used species of silkworm and intensively studied.

Stages of production of silk

The silk moth lays eggs.

The eggs hatch, and the larvae feed on mulberry leaves.

When the silkworms are about 10,000 times heavier than when they hatched, they are ready to spin a silk cocoon.

The silk is produced in two glands in the silkworm's head and then forced out in liquid form through openings called spinnerets.

The silk solidifies when it comes in contact with the air.

The silkworm spins approximately 1 mile of filament and completely encloses itself

in a cocoon in about two or three days.

Due to quality restrictions, the amount of usable silk in each cocoon is small. As a

result, 5500 silkworms are required to produce 1 kg of silk.

The silk at the cocoon stage is known as raw silk. One thread consists of up to 48

individual silk filaments.

Appearance of silkworm

Silkworms begin as wormlike larvae with the three distinct

body parts of an insect. After spending time in a cocoon,

the silkworm morphs into a scaly, four-winged moth.

Moulting

After hatching from eggs, the worms moult four times

before spinning their cocoons.

Diet

Silkworms eat the leaves of the mulberry tree or can exist

on an artificial diet.

Moriculture is the science of mulberry cultivation to rear

silkworm for silk production.

When the silk worm forms a covering around itself by secreting a protein , this is

called the cocoon stage.

It is at this time that the cocoons are delivered to the factory by the farmer. These

factories are called filature operations.

There they are sorted by color, size, shape and texture. They usually range from

white and yellow to grayish.

After the sorting, the cocoons have to be boiled in water, while they are still intact,

for 5 minutes while they are being turned gently.

They are taken out of the water and a dissecting needle is used to pick up the

strands. A single strand that will come off easily is wound around a pencil.

It is unwound in one continuous thread, which are collected into skeins. The process

is called “reeling.”

Such 3 to 10 or more fine strands are reeled together to produce the desired

diameter of raw silk. This is known as "reeled silk."

This silk is reeled into skeins, packed into small bundles called books and then

shipped to silk mills around the world.

This silk is woven into cloth and sarees. India is the largest consumer of silk in the

world. In India, silk is worn by people as a symbol of royalty while attending

functions and during festivals.

SILK ROAD

• Silk Road” was the world’s longest trade route between Eastern China and Mediterranean Sea. Silk, the most valuable commodity in those times was transported along this road.

• China was the first to start sericulture and the cultivation of silk worm spread throughout China soon.

• Today, China and India are the two main producers, together manufacturing more than 60% of the world production each year.

Silk was exported along the Silk Road (the ancient trade route linking China and the Roman Empire). This trade brought China a great wealth, but the Chinese did not give away the secret on how silk was produced

Though India is the second largest silk producer in the World after China, it

accounts for

just 5% of the global silk market, since the bulk of Indian silk thread and silk

cloth are consumed domestically.

Germany is the largest consumer of Indian silk.

The sericulture industry is landbased as silk worm rearing involves over 700,000

farm families and is concentrated in the three Southern states of Karnataka,

Tamilnadu and Andhra Pradesh. (The states of Assam and West Bengal are

also involved in the industry to a certain extent).

Silk, the queen of the fabrics still commands passion of consumer right from 2200 BC totill today, nationally and internationally. The export potential of Indian SericultureIndustry is evident from the fact that the annual export is Rs.2879.56 crores during theyear 2004-05.

Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Jammu Kashmir are

the five traditional states accounts for around 90% of the total production

About two and half centuries ago silk was introduced into

Karnataka by Tipu Sultan, the ruler of the State. Today it is the

biggest silk producing centre in India.

Sericulture introduced in TamilNadu from the border area of

Karnataka during early 1960. Now TamilNadu Stands number one

in Bivoltine Silk production in India.

Andhra Pradesh occupies 1st position in productivity and 2nd

position in the country next to Karnataka in production of Silk.

Andhra Pradesh produces all the four popular varieties of Silk

worm cocoons namely Mulberry, Tasar, Eri and Muga. Andhra

Pradesh has got very strong and traditional weaving base with

more than a lakh number of hand looms mostly concentrated

in weaving pockets like Dharmavaram, Pochampally,,

Gadval, Patur, Peddapuram, Narayanpet, etc.,

DIFFERENT TYPES OF SILK WORMS IN INDIA

• Mulberry silk

• Eri silk

• Tasar silk

• Muga silk

AHIMSA SILK-PEACE SILK Ahimsa Silk, also known as Peace Silk, is processed from cocoons without

killing the pupae inside. Many vegetarians and even some vegans have

decided that it allows them a way to use silk without sacrificing animal life. In

the vast majority of cases, it's more complicated than it appears. I feel that

anyone who is using these silk products as part of a vegan lifestyle should

carefully consider the process, and see if it really fits with their philosophy.

"Ahimsa," meaning "nonviolence," is a part of Buddhist philosophy, stating

that humans should refrain from inflicting suffering on others, including non-

human and even non-animal life. There are some Jains (a religious group

with many similarities to Buddhists) who take this philosophy so deeply to

heart that they avoid killing even the smallest creatures, and provide special

houses where insects swept up in household dirt can live out their lives. The

expressions of the philosophy, particularly in Western culture, are not

usually that extreme - but that gives a good example of a strict interpretation

of an Ahimsa path.

There are two main types of Ahimsa Silk, cultivated and "wild" (semi-

domesticated).

Most cultivated Ahimsa Silk is Bombyx mori. It is raised just like

conventional cultivated silk, right up to the point where the cocoons would

be stifled, or processed with heat, in order to kill the pupa and keep it from

breaking through the cocoon. The Ahimsa cocoons are all allowed to hatch

and breed, and the silk is processed from the hatched cocoons. In some

cases, the cocoons can be cut open and the pupa tipped out; this avoids

the moth soiling the cocoon with urine. The main issue that I have with this

style of cultivation being vegetarian-appropriate, is that each fertilized

female moth will lay between 200 and 1000 eggs, averaging around 500. In

some strains, the eggs will require refrigeration - without refrigeration, the

living embryos within the fertilized eggs will wither and die over the course

of a month or two. If they are refrigerated, they will hatch upon removal

from refrigeration, in which case they have to be fed immediately, or they

will die of starvation and dehydration. Either process will require the

destruction of approximately 200 - 300 embryos or hatchling silkworm per

moth, for any amount that exceeds what is required for the next crop.

Instead of killing one pupa for the silk of the cocoon, it kills hundreds of

caterpillars. There are two other main types of silk worm used for Ahimsa Silk, Samia

ricini, the Eri silk moth, and the various Tussah / Tasar moths, such

as Antheraea pernyi, the Chinese Tussah moth, Antheraea mylitta, the Indian

Tasar moth, and Antheraea assamensis, the Muga moth.

HOW CAN WE IDENTIFY SILK?

• Sometimes, artificial silk are sold out in the name of Natural silk. This can easily be detected with a simple burn test . It will give a smell of burning and, if not it is not a natural silk

HEALTH HAZARDS IN SERICULTURE

Handling of dead worm with bare handcontributes to infection and illness

Standing almost about 12to 16 hour a day canlead to problems such as backaches, spineproblem , and problem related to vision

Continuous exposure to the noise made byspinning and winding machines and loomswhere the fabrics is woven , result in hearingproblems

A FEW BRAIN TEASERS FOR YOU…..

Q:The scientific name of the silkworm is

a. Morus alba

b. Bombyx mori

c. Caterpillar

d. None of these

Q:Which term is NOT related with silk industry?

a. sericulture

b. moriculture

c. apiculture

d. reeling

Q:Which of these is NOT a stage of a

silkworm’s life?

a. larva

b. pupa

c. egg

d. moult

Q:The silkworm is (a) a caterpillar, (b) a larva.

Choose the correct option.

(i) a

(ii) b

(iii) Both a and b

(iv) neither a nor b

Q:Which among the following is an

animal fiber?

a. jute

b. cotton

c. polyester

d. Silk

INTERESTING FACTS…………

• A filament from a mulberry cocoon can be

more than a kilometer.

• Silk is stronger than an equivalent strand of

steel.

REFERENCES

www.dreamstine.com/photos-images/silkworm.html

www.wikipedia.org/wiki/sericulture

www.andyuong.wix.com/sericulture

THANK YOU