Trends in Organic Moriculture: An Approach for Revitalizing Silk Production

Sericulture involves a continuous series of biological processes in which the mulberry silkworm utilizes the leaf protein to form natural silk in the form of protective covering known as cocoon. Being a traditional agro-enterprise, sericulture is mainly functional in rural area of the country. Success and failure of this industry fully depends on the production of quality mulberry leaves. Though the synthetic fertilizers produce exponential increase in crop yield but possess serious threat on its quality and degrade the soil health and environment as well. Indiscriminate use of chemical fertilizers in mulberry cultivation directly affects the quality of leaf by interfering with the biochemical composition of the leaf and hence impairing the silkworm health as well. In order to meet the current demand of increased quality mulberry leaf for boosting silkworm rearing, emphasis has been laid to opt for the natural or organic based alternatives including Farm yard manure, compost, vermicompost, green manures and biofertilizers. In this direction, the concept of organic based mulberry cultivation can be viewed as an important aspect for reviving the silk industry on global context. More importantly awareness on the harmful effect of toxic chemicals and the need for an eco-friendly sericultural, industrial and agricultural management with natural resources have been deeply felt which can only provide a new shape of the life style of the human being, which is expected to be substantially better and potential to improve the sericulture industry in the way of improvement in leaf, cocoon as well as silk production and quality