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Debaprosad Lahiri

MALDA (West Bengal), Feb. 23

THE long hand of globalisation has caught in its grasp the traditional silk producers of Bengal in the shape of the cheap silk yarn from China, Korea and Japan flooding the domestic market.

The cocoons produced in Malda district, the oldest silk-producing region in West Bengal, now fetch only Rs 40 per kg; in 2001 they were selling for Rs 100 per kg in 2001. Consequently, a large number of farmers have shifted from sericulture to cash crops.

The age-old process of mulberry cultivation, outdated reeling and spinning techniques have pushed one of the oldest cottage industries of Bengal to the brink of collapse even as the State Bank of India (SBI) takes the initiative to revive sericulture activity in the State. (Said to be originally imported from China, sericulture attained levels of excellence in the old days of the Pala dynasty and flourished around Gour, one of the early capitals of Bengal.)

Of total bank funds of Rs 6.20 crore deployed in Malda sericulture till December, 2002, the share of SBI is Rs 2.37 crore, or 38 per cent. During the current fiscal, SBI has financed 161 units involving Rs 20.72 lakhs.

Among other things, the bank is focussing on technological upgradation by organising awareness programmes. Mulberry growers are being provided with adequate training for development of sericulture. For example, the bank has, in a large number of cases, facilitated the changeover from traditional reeling operations to more modern methods resulting in better quality silk yarn. In fact, the bank has made its presence felt through its financial assistance at every stage of sericulture, from mulberry cultivation to weaving of silk cloth.

Malda contributes six per cent of the national — and 70 per cent of West Bengal's — production of raw silk. In the absence of any large-scale industry in the district, sericulture has become the mainstay of the local rural people. Around 50,000 farmers and artisans in the district are involved in mulberry cultivation, cocoon production, reeling of yarn and spinning (mulberry cultivation alone, spread over 18609 acres, employs 43,000 farmers).

From the stage of mulberry cultivation to the spinning of yarn, the old indigenous method of production has stood in the way of higher productivity. The existing mulberry variety should be replaced by suitable high-yielding varieties, said Md Akramullah of Noor Resham Khadi Samiti at Sujapur village. Nistar, a local variety of mulberry (the only silkworm feed), is being cultivated in the area and forms 40 per cent of the total production.

Md Akramullah felt that the Central Silk Board and State Sericulture Board should have played a more active role in, among other things, providing a better quality of silkworm eggs, modernising the reeling process, and improving the technology and marketing of yarns.

According to a senior SBI official, among the schemes developed by SBI to revive the core cottage industry of the district is that involving potential growers for development of sericulture, the Catalytic Development Programme (CDP), Seri-2000, the production of mulberry cuttings for extensive plantation and development, and the sophistication of reeling and spinning implements.

Md Abdul Khalek of Sujapur, whose firm Pusee Resam Khadi Sangha has been banking with SBI since nearly a quarter-century, says that the Department of Sericulture must come out with ways and means to protect the interest of sericulturists. Thus, in China, while a cocoon yields 3500 metres of yarn on an average, the local F-1 variety yields only 700-750 metres, according to Md Khalek, a fifth-generation sericulturist.

He added that, owing to the absence of local weaving units, they had to sell the silk yarn to units in Varanasi, Orissa and Tamil Nadu thereby depriving themselves of a respectable return. He warned that unless the Government took urgent steps to stop the inflow of silk yarn from China, Korea and Japan, the industry would collapse leading to the economic ruin of a large part of the rural populace.

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