NUCLEUS AND BASIC SEED PRODUCTION OF TROPICAL TASAR SILKWORM (ANTHERAEA MYLITTA D.) IN PRIVATE SECTOR

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1 1 NUCLEUS AND BASIC SEED PRODUCTION OF TROPICAL TASAR SILKWORM (ANTHERAEA MYLITTA D.) IN PRIVATE SECTOR K. Sathyanarayana, Soumen Nandi 1, Md. Shamshad Alam 2 and Rajendra Khandai 2 Central Silk Board, Ministry of Textiles, Govt. of India, Bangalore , Karnataka, India 1 Basic Tasar Silkworm Seed Organization, Central Silk Board, Bilaspur , Chhattisgarh, India 2 Professional Assistance for Development Action (PRADAN), B. Deoghar , Jharkhand, India (Corresponding Author: skutala@yahoo.com) ABSTRACT Continued support and focus on tropical tasar in India by the Central Silk Board (CSB) and State Departments of Sericulture (DOS) besides other developmental agencies in recent times lead to major expansion plans, which increased stakeholder base. This also resulted in increased demand for quality tasar silkworm seed (egg) within the schedule, which has been a major constraint. Increasing demand for the tasar silkworm seed, especially basic seed warranted roping in the private sector to augment efforts of Basic Tasar Silkworm Seed Organization (BTSSO) of CSB through its Basic Seed Multiplication and Training Centres (BSM&TC) and Pilot Project Centres (PPC) under DOSs. While, CSB in association with some reputed NGOs brought in the business sense among tribals through the concept of private graineurs, as a step ahead, it also piloted nucleus seed cocoon production, its preservation and processing to produce basic seed through producer groups/ co-operatives besides nucleus seed production. Process that lead to the private sector taking up basic and nucleus seed production, modalities of operation, quality certification, capacities of preservation/ production etc., over a period of time are detailed. Production levels which were in the range of dfls of basic seed per year during the initial period to rose to around 2 lakh dfls after when the activity was taken up on scientific lines and technically adopted by BTSSO. Similarly, nucleus seed production rose from 8720 to dfls. Other production and productivity parameters in the nucleus and basic seed in private sector is also compared

2 2 over the said period. Issues in the basic and nucleus seed production costing and policy support extended is also discussed, besides the future strategies to be adopted. Key words: Tasar Silkworm Seed, Private Sector, Quality Certification, Preservation, Technical Adoption Introduction: In India, Vanya silks in general and Tropical Tasar in particular contributes most towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals in terms of women empowerment, poverty alleviation and environmental protection. It offers significant scope for providing sustainable livelihoods to the poorest of poor people in Central Indian Tribal belt and few other adjoining areas. Its role in improving tribal socio-economic condition besides generating substantial rural employment is evident from the studies of Goel et. al., (1993), Suryanarayana & Srivastava (2005) and Reddy R.M. et. al., (2010). Of the two segments, the pre-cocoon segment consist augpreparation of tasar silkworm eggs, rearing of tasar silkworm, harvesting of cocoon and marketing of the same. The post cocoon segment involves the production of yarn from cocoons, weaving of fabrics and marketing of fabrics and yarn. Tasar silkworm rearing is mainly carried out outdoors. The insect Anthereae mylitta D. is rearerd on host plants like Terminalaia arjuna and T. tomentosa, mainly available in the tropical forests in East and Central India. Due to huge demand-supply gaps, scope for creation of sustainable tribal livelihoods and unexplored potential for Tropical tasar, the sector has gained attention of development agencies, policy makers and political circles in recent times. This led to massive expansion plans by the Central Silk Board and State Sericulture Departments with convergence from other developmental agencies, during last three plan periods. This in turn resulted in higher demand for tasar silkworm seed, which remained a major constraint. Tasar silkworm egg production depend on yield and quality of seed cocoons, which vary based on outdoor rearing conditions, disease prevalence and inconsistent reproductive performance of silk moth (Prasad B.C. et.al., 2000) and hence, the generation of higher quantity seed cocoons with superior quality and disease freeness are the focal points in seed multiplication. The achievement of tasar silkworm egg production (grainage operation) is inter-dependent of seed cocoon availability and their

3 3 preservation, emergence of parental moths, synchronized pairing and their disease freeness (Reddy R.M. et.al., 2010b and Reddy R.M. et.al., 2009). Seed Multiplication System in Tasar Sector: Under the present seed multiplication system in tropical tasar, while Central Tasar Research & Training Institute (CTR&TI), Ranchi is expected to supply elite seed. Further multiplication to nucleus and basic seed is taken up by Basic Tasar Silkworm Seed Organization (BTSSO) and its nested units viz., Central Tasar Silkworm Seed Station (CTSSS) and BSM&TCs. BTSSO has stretched out to its maximum installed capacities and further scaling up may not be possible due to infrastructure and manpower constraints. Pilot Production Centres in most of the tasar producing states are yet to gear up to the raising demands, in spite of support from Catalytic Development Programme (CDP) of CSB and also state plan schemes. The varied onset of tasar crop rearing seasons (Reddy R.M. et.al., 2010a and Reddy R.M. 2011), recurrent disease incidence in tasar silkworm commercial egg, irregular reproductive behavior of tasar silk insect (Hansda et.al., 2008), lack of technologies on tasar egg handling (Rath et.al., 2002) and limited forward and backward linkages (Sathyanarayana et.al., 2009 and Sinha RK et al., 2009) have hampered the progression of tasar silk industry. As indicated by Dwarakinath et al., (1994), sericulture development demands competence in the areas of technical, extension and managerial issues. Bhat et. al., (2006) and Amarnath et. al., (2007) emphasized the role of private sector to cater the requirement of huge quantum of commercial seed. While the private sector could meet the commercial seed requirements in most of the states, increased demand for basic seed has been a critical issue in the entire tasar silk value chain. Further, due to ban on new recruitments in government sector which was catering to basic seed needs, low motivation levels, poor service conditions and shortage of resources, warranted the entry of private sector in this area also. Financial viability of commercial tasar silkworm seed production is proved beyond doubt (Sathyanarayana et al., 2016), who felt the need their participation in basic seed production too. Materials and Methods: In view of the experience of seed rearers and private graineur groups mobilized under the special Swarnajayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojana (SGSY)

4 4 Projects in Bihar and Jharkhand in seed cocoon processing, moth testing and grainage operation, they were motivated to take up preserving nucleus seed cocoons to produce basic seed locally. To start with rearers cooperative buildings in 7 different locations in the project area were provided with required facilities like thatched verandah in all the four sides of the cooperative building, false ceiling, thin layer of sand bed on the RCC roof and 2-3 inches thick paddy straw over sand bed. The roof was soaked by sprinkling of water daily once in the morning lakh Daba bivoltine nucleus seed cocoons reared locally by the Adopted Seed Rearers on the block plantations of T. arjuna with 6 x 6 spacing raised in private waste lands in the vicinity of villages, were preserved during the period December to June. The responsibility of preservation was directly with the Tasar Vikas Samities (TVSs) under close supervision of PRADAN and CSB. During the preservation period, Pebrine Assessment Team, constituted by CSB visited the entire preservation site twice, assessed the disease levels and guided TVSs. The preservation of cocoons was very successful, the preservation loss was in a range of 3.1% to 4.4%. Due to smaller size of the preservation and lack of space for processing, infrastructure on scientific lines was established along with grainage equipment and required working capital to be operated by the private graineur groups lead by TVS. All the members were trained by the BSM&TC scientists to take up the entire activity on scientific lines. PRADAN trained the members on entrepreneurial and business linkage issues to motivate the trained members to engage in basic seed production. Only those members who were in engaged by the BSM&TCs in the basic seed grainage operations were preferred. The concept with initial hiccups picked up within two to three years i.e., by about seven buildings of Basic Seed Production Centres (BSPC) were constructed under Special SGSY and NABARD-Tribal Development Fund (TDF) projects. Due to capacity building and other backward & forward linkages established, fecundity of the basic seed produced in these grainages was in the range of 230 eggs to 260 eggs and hatching percentage in the range of 85% to 95%, as there was no transportation loss. Also, majority of the basic seed produced were within the recommended brushing schedule (with hatching from 1 st week of July to month end). The Major steps followed in the process were as follows:

5 5 Procurement of nucleus/elite seed from BTSSO. Nucleus/elite seed rearing in the isolated block plantations following package of practices during the silkworm rearing by the trained manpower. Following disinfection and hygiene measures viz., regular use of lime and bleaching on the ground, dusting of lime and bleaching on the standing crop as well as on the worms directly during transfer of worms throughout the rearing period, fumigation of co-operative building for 72 hours after white-washing with lime and bleaching. Larval and pupal testing before the purchase of seed cocoons and sorting. Business linkages for nucleus/ elite seed procurement, seed rearing by identifying skilled seed rearers, disposal of nucleus/ basic seed and crop monitoring/ buyback. Quality Certification of Basic Seed Production Centres: Of the eleven units where basic seed production was taken up, six locations which were provided with seed multiplication infrastructure and grainage equipment supported with nucleus seed rearers were certified under ISO during the year The ISO Quality manual system of the Basic Seed Production Units promoted by CSB and PRADAN denotes that the quality of seed cocoons must be certified before procurement whether the lot is suitable for preservation or not based on the percentage of pebrine disease in the silkworm/pupae, i.e., less than 5% if it is found more than special permission from the President of Co-operative is required with valid reason. To ensure this, Quality Management System (QMS) norms in seed rearer identification with isolated/ earmarked rearing patch, rearing field disinfection and management as per devised schedule, seed cocoon procurement, disinfection of the Basic seed preservation centre, preservation of cocoons in the basic seed preservation centers, grainage operation, records to be maintained at each basic seed production center viz., daily record keeping, daily work maintenance and housekeeping, customer feedback, visitor s register, Asset register, stock register, etc., procurement and purchase of items in Basic seed preservation centers, vendor assessment, skill matrix & training plan, internal and external audit

6 6 are followed. Non-conformance observed if any, was complied upon from time to time. Results and Discussion: Basic seed production was taken up in makeshift arrangements of Rearers collectives with required modifications during the period to and same was taken up in scientifically built BSPCs from onwards. Details of number of TVS buildings where the nucleus seed cocoons were preserved with numbers preserved and processed besides the number of basic seed produced with incidence of pebrine in the lots are depicted in Table-1. It may be noticed that 8 TVSs preserved nucleus seed cocoons with minimum of 7 and maximum of 11 TVSs per year. An average of 6.55 lakh nucleus seed cocoons were preserved, lakh nucleus seed cocoons were processed to produce with an average production of 1.23 lakh dfls of basic seed/ annum. Average pebrine percentage over years was found to be 10% and in the range of 3 to 22%. Also, an average of 14,632 dfls of basic seed was produced per TVS per year during the period under report. Table-2 indicates the coverage of Basic Seed Production Centres during the period to with nucleus seed cocoons preserved/ processed with seed cocoons discorded and incidence of pebrine. It is inferred that the average nucleus seed cocoons preserved/unit/operation increased from 77,914 to 1,43,695 and the basic seed produced/unit/year from 14,632 to 21,170, which indicates efficacy of the BSPC model. While around 13 lakh nucleus seed cocoons are preserved during , about 3 lakh dfls basic seed is expected to be produced. However, pebrine incidence remained in the same range, which shows that the pebrine incidence depends mainly on the rearing management, disease freeness in the rearing patches and seed cocoon quality at the time of procurement but not on the grainage operation. While Fig-1 depicts the graphical representation of number of TVSs and BSPCs involved in basic seed production, Fig-2 indicate the total quantity of nucleus seed cocoons preserved, processed and Basic seed produced/year in TVSs vis-à-vis BSPCs. Similarly, Fig-3 & 4 gives a comparative picture of average number of nucleus seed cocoons preserved, processed and basic seed produced/unit per year and year-wise cocoon: Dfl ratio, respectively. Fig-4 indicate that the cocoon:dfl ratio was in the range

7 7 of 4.23 to 7.18 in TVSs and 3.63 to 8.05 in BSPCs, with no significant difference between them. With the experience gained by the TVSs in basic seed production, producers of Vanvasi Co-operative, Banka district in Bihar and Aven Co-operative, Dumka district in Jharkhand took up nucleus seed production under technical guidance of BTSSO from Table-3 depicts the performance of these ISO certified BSPCs in nucleus seed production. While these BSPCs preserved and processed maximum of 3.56 lakh, minimum of elite seed cocoons and an average of lakh cocoons. While an average of couplings were obtained per unit/year with 1854 cocoons discorded based on physical examination and 18,127 dfls of nucleus seed produced. Nucleus seed produced per year ranged between 8720 dfls in to 64,120 dfls in Also, the cocoon:dfl ratio which was 10.32:1 during was improved to 1.85:1 with an average of 4.97:1 indicates the quality standards followed by BSPCs, which were comparable with BTSSO. This production capacity of around 3 lakh basic seed and about dfls of nucleus seed every year would reduce significant burden on the government sector and also empower local community to intervene across all the nodes of tasar silk value chain thereby increasing the primary producers share. Policy interventions: In order to encourage the private sector, CSB has implemented the following policy related decisions. Uniform pricing of basic seed Rs.2/- per cocoon and nucleus seed cocoons as per Grade-A cocoon price of Daba BV cocoons for the year. Uniform pricing of Rs.10/- for commercial seed and Rs.12/- for basic and nucleus seed per dfl with uniform subsidy/incentives, if any. Periodic monitoring of seed multiplication related activities including disease assessment and certification of seed produced at various levels. Though remarkable achievements have been made under the Special SGSY and NABARD-TDF Projects in Bihar and Jharkhand in roping private participation in tasar seed multiplication in general and basic and nucleus

8 8 seed in particular, this need to be replicated in other tasar producing states for empowerment of tribals involved in the tasar value chain. References: 1. Amarnath S., Sathyanarayana K. and Khanna, R.P (2007): Tasar Silkworm Seed Production in Private Sector under Special SGSY Projects in Bihar and Jharkhand - A Breakthrough. Abstracts of International Conference Sericulture Challenges in the 21 st Century (Serichal 2007) & the 3 rd BACSA meeting, September 2007, Vratza, Bulgaria, pp Goel, A.K., B.N. Brahmachari, M. Thandapani and K. Thangavelu, Socio-economic study of tasarculture. Indian Silk. 31(12): Hansda, G., R.M. Reddy, M.K. Sinha, N.G. Ojha and N.B.V. Prakash, 2008 Ex-situ stabilization and utility prospects of Jata ecorace of tropical tasar silkworm Antheraea mylitta Drury. Academic Journal of Industrial Entomology. 17(2): Prasad, B.C., R. Narain, N. Kumar, S.S. Rath, V.K. Verma, B.B.S. Negi and K. Thangavelu, A new technology for female moth preservation in tasar grainage. Indian Silk. 39(1): 15 & Rath, S.S., B.B.S. Negi, B.R.R.P. Sinha and K. Thangavelu, Low cost incubator for Antheraea mylitta eggs: Efficacy of the devices. Bulletin of Indian Academy of Sericulture. 6(2): Reddy, R.M., M.K. Sinha, G. Hansda and N.B.V. Prakash, Application of parents by selection for basic and commercial seed efficiency in tropical tasar silkworm, Antheraea mylitta Drury (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae). Academic Journal of Industrial Entomology. 17(2): Reddy, R.M., M.K. Sinha and B.C. Prasad, 2010: Breeding perspective for silk yield and quality in Indian tropical tasar silkworm, Antheraea mylitta Drury (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae). Journal of Applied Science. 10(17):

9 9 8. Reddy, R.M., A.K. Sinha, Ram Kumar and B.C. Prasad, 2010a. Parental combination and rearing season compatibility for silk yield in tropical tasar silkworm, Antheraea mylitta Drury. World Applied 48(4): Sciences Journal. 9(8): Reddy, R.M., N. Suryanarayana, S. Rai and N.B.V. Prakash, 2010b. Reproductive performance in relation to male and female pupal weights and their combinations in tropical tasar silkworm, Antheraea mylitta D. Sericologia. 50(3): Reddy, R.M., Adoptability limitation and commercial feasibility of silkworm rearing of Indian tropical tasarculture. Journal of Environmental Sciences. 5(6): Sathyanarayana, K., S. Amarnath and S. Acharya, SGSY special projects for tasar development in Bihar & Jharkhand: Initiatives & impact. Indian Silk. 48(4): Sathyanarayana K., Soumen Nandi and Mohd. Shamshad Alam (2016): Cost Benefit Analysis of Commercial Seed Production of Tasar Silkworm (Antheraea mylitta D.) in the Central Indian Tribal Belt, Sericologia. 56(1): Sinha R.K., M.N. Ramesha and K. Satyanarayana, PRADAN: Lending a helping hand. Indian Silk. 48(4): Suryanarayana, N. and A.K. Srivastava, Monograph on Tropical Tasar Silkworm. Central Tasar Research and Training Institute, Central Silk Board, Ranchi, India, pp: 1-87 ********

10 10 Table-1: Basic Seed Production in Tasar Vikas Samiti Buildings Year No. of TVSs covered Nucleus Seed Cocoons Preserved Nucleus Seed Cocoons Processed No.of DFLs produced Pebrine % ,04,996 4,87,782 1,15,180 3 to ,14,738 5,94,098 1,03,275 7 to ,53,269 6,19,448 86, ,58,375 7,14,820 1,67,390 9 to ,41,000 7,19,440 1,42,474 9 to 22 Total 42 32,72,378 31,35,588 6,14,563 3 to ,54,476 6,27, Minimum 7 5,04,996 4,87,782 86,244 Maximum 11 7,58,375 7,19,440 1,67,390 77,914 74,657 Table-2: Basic Seed Production in Basic Seed Production Centres Year No. of BSPUs covered Nucleus Seed Cocoons Preserved Nucleus Seed Cocoons Processed Discarded before testing No.of DFLs produced Average pebrine % ,63,100 9,27,500 22,564 1,41,177 4 to ,98,000 11,98,000 24,508 1,97, to ,92,600 13,92,600 51,823 1,73, to ,44,543 6,02,243 18,645 1,65,919 5 to 19 Total 9 45,98,243 41,20,343 1,17,540 6,77,454 4 to 24 Average/year 11,49,561 10,30,086 29,385 1,69, Minimum 9,44,543 6,02,243 18,645 1,41,177 Maximum 13,92,600 13,92,600 51,823 1,97,277 Average/BSPU 9 1,43,695 1,28,761 3,673 21,170 Table-3: Nucleus Seed Production in Basic Seed Production Units Year No. of BSPUs covered No. of cocoons preserved/ BSPU No. of Couplings obtained Discarded before testing No. of Nucleus DFLs produced Pebrine % to to 6 Total to 22 Average/year Minimum 1 90,000 21,520 1,102 8,720 Maximum 3 3,56,000 1,19,101 8,622 64,120 Average/BSPU

11 11 Fig-1: Yearly coverage of TVSs/BSPCs in Basic seed production Fig-2: Nucleus seed cocoons preserved, processed and Basic seed produced/year TVS BSPC

12 Fig-3: Nucleus seed cocoons preserved, processed and Basic seed produced/unit 12