The Central Silk Board is doling out huge subsidies to the farmers opting for sericulture, besides providing them free training on best farm practices, according to the Board chairman K.H. Hanumantharayappa.
“The subsidies are up to 90% for the farmers belonging to the scheduled castes and scheduled tribe. All the farmers can avail the benefits in several forms from purchasing fertilizer and pesticide to the selling of cocoons and the yarn,” he said at a press conference here on Friday. As part of his nationwide tour to the States with sericulture’s presence, Mr. Hanumantharayappa interacted with the mulberry farmers from Gollaprolu and Chebrolu and convened a national conference.
“Andhra Pradesh is in second place at the national level in cocoons production and the State government too is supporting sericulture by way of extending support price to the farmers,” he said, adding that from importing silk clothes from countries like China to exporting the to the European countries, India achieved a lot on the silk industry front and the credit must be attributed to the collective efforts of the farmers, scientists and the officials.
“The government policies are more farmer-friendly now. On the machinery being used for yarn making that costs ₹1.4 crore in the market, subsidy to the tune of ₹1 crore is offered by the Central government through the Silk Board,” he said, adding that all the subsidies would be released within 24 hours of submitting the application and there was no need of providing bank guarantee.
“Similarly, our network of 700 scientists is on the job of visiting the fields and assisting the farmers. Any query from the farmers will be addressed within 24 hours,” he said. Expressing satisfaction over the progress of sericulture in East Godavari district, he said that it was happy to know that the output was beyond the targets and it was the result of more and more farmers switching to sericulture owing to training and market facilities and remunerative price to the produce.
