5,000 farmers took part in cocoon auction in Udhampur

Jammu, Aug 20: As many as 5,000 farmers participated in 26-day long silk cocoon auction market organised by the Sericulture Development Department in Udhampur district of Jammu and Kashmir. During the current year, spring rearing of 1,71,828 kg of cocoon has been produced by farmers, an official spokesman said.

There had been an increase of 44,000 kg of cocoon and 500 numbers of rearers in Udhampur district over pervious year, in spite of losses to about 200 families at Ramkot in tehsil Majalta, the spokesman said.

The rates of dry cocoon remained at an average of Rs 323 per kg for all grades of cocoons while there has been a little decrease in average price per kg fetched by farmers over last year due to lowering of import duty on raw silk yarn and impact of drain during spinning of cocoon.

The income generations out of silk cocoon production in the district remained Rs 1.90 crore for spring rearing.

It is worthwhile to mention here that women especially from rural areas of Ghordi, Ramnagar and other backward of the district are joining the cocoon rearing as their job and fetching handsome amount in small span of time which no other crop can yield.

PTI