The Centre on Thursday said that Assam has witnessed a remarkable growth in silk production in 2017-18.
In a written statement in the Parliament, Union Minister of State for Textiles Ajay Tamta said that Assam is the third largest silk producing State in the country, having potential for production of 3 varieties of silk (mulberry, eri and muga), sharing around 15 per cent of country’s total raw silk production.
Assam has witnessed production of 4861 MT of mulberry, eri and muga silk in 2017-18 whereas in 2016-17 the production was 3810 MT and in 2015-16 the production was 3325 MT.
Muga silk of Assam is the unique golden-yellow silk produced only in India.
Tamta said that three projects have also been approved for Assam (2 eri spun silk mills and 1 project for eri) during current financial year 2018-19 with a total central share of Rs 55.53 crore.
“To encourage production of silk in Assam, 6 projects are under implementation in 13 districts from 2014-15 to 2018-19 with the financial assistance of Rs 188.85 crore from centre India to cover mulberry, eri, muga and post cocoon sectorsm” said the Union Minister.
Under the North East Region Textile Promotion Scheme (NERTPS), 32 sericulture projects are being implemented namely Integrated Sericulture Development Project (ISDP) and Intensive Bivoltine Sericulture Development Project (IBSDP) covering mulberry, eri and muga sectors in all northeastern States.
The projects aim at holistic development of sericulture in all its spheres from plantation development to production of fabrics with value addition at every stage of production chain.
These projects have been approved at a total cost of Rs 992.05 crore with central share of Rs 849.03 crore for implementation from 2014-15 to 2020-21.
The projects are expected to contribute additional production of around 2,600 MT raw silk during the project period and 1,200 MT silk per annum after project period involving around 60,000 beneficiaries.