Karnataka's famous Mysore silks may face trouble

By Roshni Menon, CNBC-TV18.

Karnataka could possible lose the title of India's silk capital to its neighbouring states. A strange mix of real estate development and shortage of water may be the reason.

Karnataka's famous Bangalore and Mysore silks could be facing trouble.

Karnataka's share of raw silk production or sericulture, as it's known as, has fallen to 43 per cent in 2006-07 from 68% ten years ago. And real estate development seems to have caused this drop.

M Sathiavathy, Member, Central Silk Board said, “The reason there is a dip in Karn it i ataka is because sericulture in Karnataka is focused around Bangalore. If you have noticed s more Bangalore rural districts namely, Ramanagaram, Mysore, and Mandya, but, as you know, Mysore and Bangalore are industrialising really fast and real estate agents are taking over the land. There is therefore a conversion of the land and farmers are giving up on sericulture"

Estimates indicate that over 40,000 hectares under sericulture have been diverted for real estate development. On the labour front too, silk farmers are migrating to the city in search of higher paying jobs. While silk yarn reeling units usually pay around Rs. 70-80 per day even non-skilled jobs in Bangalore pay around Rs 100-150 per day. Add to that, the chronic water shortage in these areas and it's a perfect mix to aid migration. But Karnataka's loss is its neighbours' gain.

M Sathiavathy, Member, Central Silk Board said, "I would say that Tamil Nadu has shown a lot of improvement. In fact the belt near Krishnagiri, Coimbatore have adapted to bivoltine very fast."

Tamil Nadu's production of bivoltine raw silk production has increased from a measly 2 percent four years ago to 30 percent last year. And Andhra Pradesh's contribution has risen from 22% a decade ago to about 32% last year.

The Silk Board is now tackling the situation head on and introducing bivoltine silk varieties in new areas like Bagalkot and Belgaum in North Karnataka. And while they say that they cannot stop small farmers from selling their land, they are trying to increase productivity at larger farms around Bangalore by introducing better technology and machinery.