IMPHAL, February 24: Villages which have been traditionally engaged in sericulture farming are targeted to be projected as model villages of sericulture by providing maximum help from the Sericulture department, stated the department`™s director, Waikhom Ibohal.
He was talking to the media at the sidelines of the inaugural function of the five-day training programme for beneficiaries under the North Eastern Region Textile Promotion Scheme 2014-15, organised by the Imphal East District Sericulture Officer at Heingang Ibudhou Laiharaopham Community hall.
Before the training programme, the director told media persons that the State was one of the most favourable States for starting Sericulture projects in India, adding that sericulture farming has been practiced by our ancestors as a traditional activity. He expressed that during his tenure, villages like Khurkhul, Andro, Pheiyeng and Thongjao which have been engaged in sericulture farming since time immemorial are targeted of being developed into model villages of Sericulture.
Secondly, the Sericulture project recently taken up under the North-Eastern Region Textile Promotion Scheme, 2014-15 must be successfully groomed to start bi-volatile cocoon production. The farmers should also co-operate with the department to make the project successful so that sericulture is revived in the State, he said.
Stressing that highlighting the potential of Sericulture in our State to the people of Manipur was his first priority, he said Mother Nature has gifted Manipur a soil which is conducive for sericulture farming of four varieties of silk such as Muga, Mulbbary, Eri and Oak Tasar with a quality which is very different from other Indian States.
In the second phase of the Manipur Sericulture Project after Japan stopped funding the NERTPS 2014-15, the four districts of Imphal East, Imphal West, Thoubal and Bishnupur have been ordered to take up training programmes for selected farmers.
In this regard, the training programme was a continuation from the ones at Thoubal, Bishnupur and Imphal West. Today, 150 selected farmers from Imphal East district participated in the programme which will go on for five days.