Diagnostic Case Studies

Diagnostic Case Studies: Commercial Cocoon

Region: North Western Himalaya Region
State: Jammu & Kashmir

NAME: Ms. Leela Devi

ADDRESS: Siot, Sunderbani, Rajouri District,

Jammu & Kashmir Pin code-185152

Background

Ms. Leela Devi w/o Kamal Kumar is a resident of Siot, Sunderbani, Rajouri district from
the state Jammu and Kashmir. The respondent is 42 years of age and belongs to the
general category. In her family there are a total of 6 members, 2 adults (1 male, 1 female)
and 4 children, i.e., below 15 years of age(3 female, 1 male). The respondent Ms. Leela
Devi has no educational qualifications, and her experience in the field of sericulture is
basically traditional. She is a beneficiary of the CDP schemes offered by the Central Silk
Board during 2009-10, and her sericulture activity is towards mulberry plantation.

She has a small land holding, of which 1.5 ha of area is being cultivated for agricultural
purposes and 0.2 ha is used for Sericulture activities. Both these cultivations are rain-fed.
Over the years their annual income through Sericulture has increased from Rs.17000 in
2006-07 to Rs.24000 in 2008-09, and in agriculture it has increased from Rs.22000 in
2006-07 to Rs.35000 in 2008-09.

The area under cultivation for mulberry plantation has remained constant at 0.2 ha since
2007-08. She doesn’t have a proper source of irrigation and basically depends on
rainwater, which is stored in artificial tanks. This Sericulturist had availed of a rearing
house through the CDP scheme in the year 2009-10, besides that she owns rearing trays
and bed cleaning nets since the year 2007-08, and locally acquired ploughs. The
Respondent has not participated in any training programmes.

The main constraint for the respondent which prevents this sericulturist in adoption of
sericulture as a primary source of income has been unsuitable climatic conditions and
non-availability of financial credit from financial institutions.

After the technological inputs in sericulture, 0.2 ha of area under cultivation are now
having tree plantation in a random manner on the edges of the field, there are about 60
tree plants which are 6 feet high each.

The plantation has occasionally been infested with Prabrine plant disease, affecting at
times 2% of the plantation, and Uzi fly pest causing some loss and other losses due to
negliegience.

CDP Scheme

Ms. Leela Devi is a beneficiary of Catalytic Development Programme during the XIth
plan period. The central govt. offered an assistance for the construction of rearing houses
during year 2009-10 by providing her Rs.17000 in support for tin sheet for the rearing
house, rest of the construction materials were bought by her from her own sources. She
faced no difficulties in availing of the assistance from CDP.

For late stage rearing 18X14 ft size of rearing house is used, 30°C temperature and 70%
RH is maintained inside the rearing house for best results. The silkworms are fed the
shoots of the plant once everyday, the bed cleaning method adopted is basically the
traditional way of polishing with gobar & mud which is also done once daily.
Adaptation of transfer of technology in cocoon production has been implied for a month
now and its impact has been very good for the production. The only problem has been
financial constraints for acquiring the technology and unacceptable climate.

The farmer has not bought any machines apart from the CDP schemes, and some
problems were faced by the farmer in the utilization of the old & new technology
provided. The state sericulture department helped in giving them knowledge with respect
to the latest techniques/inputs to get higher yield. The sericulturist has also availed of
health insurance scheme for women sericulturist and ancillary workers , this has covered
4 out of 6 of her family members (herself, husband, 1 son & 1 daughter)

Productivity Details

The production of Bivoltine mulberry cocoons has increased from 37 kg in 2007-08 to 50

kg in 2009-10, keeping in mind that only 1 crop is produced in a year due to climatic
conditions it has been a significant increase in productivity. We already know that
Bivoltine variety is reared by the farmer, the productivity detail is as such, 100 DFL’s is
brushed per crop per year, of which 50kg is yielded per crop per year and again 50kg is
the yield for every 100 DFL’s. Bivoltine crop is reared usually in the month of May
because of the acceptable weather conditions at that time of the year in J&K, the amount
of DFL’s reared is pegged at 100 and the cocoon harvested is 50 kg.

There is not much cost of production as most of the work is done by the farmer and her
family itself. They don’t hire any labour and as such don’t need to spend on wages. Only
in cocoon transportation did the sericulturist needed to spend Rs.40 for a single trip in the
year 2009-10.

As per the annual marketing data Bivoltine quantity of cocoon sold has grown from 37 kg
in 2007-08 (at the rate of Rs.340/kg of cocoon received) to 50 kg in 2009-10(at the rate
Rs.400/kg of cocoon received in 2009-10). Overall there has been an increase in both
quantity and rate of cocoon sold.
The next step of disposing the cocoon produced is done at the Govt. Cocoon market,
Sunderbani, Rajouri district which is 8 km away from her place. The husband goes by
cycle to dispose off the cocoon at the market The Cocoon Market is the only available
institutional service provider in their vicinity.

Having no educational qualifications has also devoided this farmer from the awareness of
various schemes other than CDP implemented by the State Government for the benefit of
Sericulture farmers. But whatever scheme that the farmer has availed of has been truly
helpful in increasing the yield of production and their income.

Suggestions
The beneficiary has given some suggestions from her own experience in sericulture
including the CDP Scheme. These suggestions are:

 The sericulturist suggests that hybrid seeds & mulberry plants should be
developed which can be utilized all year under any weather conditions.
 There should be more support from the respective agencies in the field of
marketing of their cocoons produced.
 Till now funds were being given only for Tin-sheets for the rearing house, more
funds should be provided under the CDP scheme in order to obtain rest of the
construction materials for the Rearing house.