Spatio-temporal changes of growth and production of sericulture in Asia : An analytical and comparative study

The sericulture industry is unique for many reasons; is a highly valued textile fibre of animal origin based on agricultural output including, cocoons and cottage based labour intensive in nature is used almost entirely for the production of high quality textiles. In this paper, the present status of the sericulture industry in India and sericulturally advanced countries in Asia, their pace of trends in mulberry area and raw silk production, position of global silk scenario and marketing behavior have been reviewed and analysed. Besides, debating issues like potentiality of higher concentration of raw silk production; its comparative study among traditional and major producers of silk, reasons of fluctuations in production and productivity, impacts of global trade policy including imports and exports competitiveness and the emergence and application of new synthetic fibres as a fashion material have been identified. An attempt has been made to formulate a strategic model to recognize the potential strength and challenges of sericulture in India and Asian Region to enhance productivity and quality of silk products.


INTRODUCTION
Sericulture, an art and science of raising silkworms is a biological process of getting textile fibre of animal origin.Thus, silk fibre is a protein produced from the silk-glands of silk worms.Historically, this weavable fibre was first discovered by the Chinese empress Xi Ling Shi during 2,640 B.C.And more interestingly, its culture and weaving was a guarded secret for more than 2,500 years by the Chinese.This intensive labour based cottage industry comprises of reeling, silk preparatory and weaving, silknitting, silk wet and processing consisting of degumming, dyeing, printing and finishing besides garment manufacturing.
Today more than 29 countries in the world are engaged in silk production activities, but this viable material is consumed by almost all countries of the world.Among major producers, 14 silk producing countries are situated in Asian Region, comprising a contribution of 90% in the total production (Central Silk Board, Bangalore 2005-2006).
Thus, there is continuous and steady growth of silk materials in the world.But, in spite of the high demand, the contribution of silk to the world textile fibres is only about 0.25.However, in terms of value of trading, this share of percentage is still higher.Remarkably as a shift of paradigm, the year 1995 witnessed world's highest production of raw silk to the extents of 1,05,438 tonnes.Experiencing fluctuations in trend, still, the sericulture industry is boom and tailor made enterprise.*Corresponding author.E-nail: akhtar34@gmail.comTel: +91-9897582230.

Objectives
Specifically, the main objectives of the study are; (I).To examines the growth and production of sericulture in India with special emphasis on major producing states of the country; (ii) To trace out shift of growth and production in the sericulturally advanced countries in Asia; (iii) To scan highest concentration of silk production in India and sericulturally advanced countries in Asia; (iv) To introduce in brief, the historical perspective of sericulture.

METHODOLOGY
The whole study and results have been critically appraised by using secondary sources of data.The secondary data were collected from published literature, Government Reports, District Statistical Bulletins, District Gazetteers, District statistical Hand book, Conference Proceedings (Newspapers and other periodicals) and various websites.
In addition to usual statistical measures such as percentages and averages, the triennium and Gini's coefficient correlation techniques were employed at appropriate context in the study to evaluate and analyse the collected data.
Two periods of times (that is, 1994-97 and 2001-04) in consecutive years have been taken into account for the scientific result of the compiled data, processed by authors themselves.Tables are constructed to project trend of analysis and growth rate over past years.Highest concentration and level of production has been shown through applying Gini's coefficient correlation.Data processing is carried out through manually and computer facility.Besides, graphs and diagrams are presented to illustrate the facts and figures wherever necessary.
The percentage concentration of rawsilk production mentioned and calculated in Table 3 known as Gini's coefficient correlation (G) and can be numerically worked out by using the following formula where, G is Gini concentration ratio; Xi is cumulative percentage of the total raw silk production in India; Yi is cumulative percentage of the total raw silk production in major Asian Countries, and n is the total number of observations.

Background of study area
The broad area of investigation is major silk producing federal states of India and sericulturally advanced countries in Asia.In these traditional sericultural regions of the world, rural people have taken up sericulture as one of the most important enterprise to earn their livelihood.The socio-economic status of the sericultural farmers has assumed a significant importance in the rural social life as it has direct bearing on their income and occupation.
Sericulture, an age old craft in India is practiced in a vast geographically diversified areas including, temperate (Kashmir), sub-tropical (Jammu, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, North-Eastern Region) and Tropical (West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.Further, India has the unique distinction of being the only country in the world producing four varieties of silk including Mulberry, Tasar, Munga and Eri.Over 98% of Mulberry raw silk production is contributed by five traditional states of sericulture namely Karnataka (Krishnaswamy, 1992), Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal (Mookherjee, 1992) and Jammu and Kashmir (Sericulture and silk industry, Statistics, 2003;Central silk Board Bangalore, India, 1989) These regions of historical background have various characteristics of silk weaving and its reason of localization is recognized as the most suitable for the development and growth of sericulture (Hanumappa, 1985).Infact, today's largest producers and suppliers of raw silk and silk yarn are in Asia, with the notable exception of Brazil; Unlike, some other textiles, silk yarn traditions and silk-wearing demand go back a long way to sericulturally advanced nations in Asia.The world's bulk production of silk is mostly confined in the Asian continent where labour is cheap and easily available.Other parameters of high concentration of silk production constitute its large scale practice and processing in rural areas where the requisite facilities are available along with suitable agro-climatic conditions.Analytically, Asian countries of China, Japan, Republic of Korea, Uzbakistan, Thailand and Vietnam have been taken for a detail evaluation and discussion based on the parameter of production.

Trends of mulberry area and raw silk production (India's major states)
India continues to be the second largest producer of silk in the world, providing gainful occupation to about six million persons in the rural and semi-urban areas across the country.This nation being the biggest canvas of silk is also the biggest consumer of rawsilk and silk fabrics.The country had produced 17,520 metric tonnes of rawsilk in the year 2005-06 of which mulberry alone accounted for about 88% (Central Sericultural Research and Training Institute, Mysore).The country earned Rs 3158.16 crores of foreign exchange by exporting silk made UPS Rs 3158.16.Although silk production has been witnessing an increasing trend since 1951, still there exists a wide gap between demand for and supply of raw silk.The estimatated production of mulberry silk was 17,853 metric tonnes during 2005-06 as against the demand of around 26,000 tonnes per annum and leaving the gap of nearly 8147 tonnes in demand (Central Sericultural Research Bangalore) A cursory look at Table 1 could enable one to understand the trends of mulberry area and raw silk production in India and in its major producing states.Inspite of decrease in total mulberry area (-0.71%) during the triennium 1994-97 to 2001-2004 India's total production of raw silk has been increasing steadily at an annual rate of 0.98% during the same triennium.Evidently, it is due to sharpen competitive edge in technological innovation and development of sophisticated products.Remarkarbly to note that India has been producing a considerable quantity of international standard silk in recent years by contributing 18% of the total world raw silk production (Table 1 and Figure 1).India's mulberry area and raw silk production mainly concentrated in the states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Jammu and Kashmir constituting 90% of  the total mulberry production Figure 2. The states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh constitute 85% of the total production; Karnataka being the traditional state contributes 65% and known as "Silk Bowl" of the country.In term of mulberry area and raw silk production, an increase up to the extent of 4.30 to 4.40% and 0.42 to 0.38% per annum has been reported from the states of Andhra Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, respectively.The three states namely Karnataka, West Bengal, and Tamil Nadu have shown a declining trend in terms of mulberry area as well as in total raw silk production.The highest negative trend in terms of production up to the level -1.19% per annum has been noticed from the state of West Bengal (Bose 1968).Although sericulture activities in Andhra Pradesh were initiated in later part of 1980s, the growth momentum has surpassed other silk producing states.The state of Tamil Nadu once was considered to be a potential state for silk production has failed to show better performance in recent years.The negative growth in yield in Jammu and Kashmir was mainly due to low scale of cocoon production.Further, it may be amplify that area under mulberry acreage and raw silk production had been declining during the period while productivity indicated increasing trend.

Trends of raw silk production (Asia's major countries)
The fast developing economies in Asia had been showing an increasing interest in silk products, as the standard of living rose steadily.Today, there areover 30 silk producing countries of the world, 14 countries are situated M u lb er ry Are a a n d Ra w Silk P rod u ctio n in M a jo r Ind ia n S ta te s d u rin g T rie nn iu m 1 99 4 -9 7 to 2 0 0 1-04 in Asian Region.These sericulturally advanced countries contribute 90% of the total silk production of the region.
Major producers of the silk trading countries included China, India, Japan, Republic of Korea, Uzbekistan, Thailand and Vietnam.China continues to hold the key position and presently production is steadily increasing.The Republic of China, the world leader in silk production has share an annual growth of 3.56% during the triennium 1994-97 to 2001-2004 (Table 2).However, it reached its peak level (77,900 metric tonnes) during 1995 and thereafter, fell and started increasing from the year 2000 onwards.
Data on silk industry (Aziz and Hanumappa, 1985) of India indicated that the raw silk production increased from mere 825 metric tons in 1950-51 to 14,620 metric tonnes in 2004-05 showing 18 times increase.An annual growth rate of 1.22% has been compiled from India during triennium 1994-1997 to 2001-2004.It is mainly due to large scale adoption of new technologies by the farmers (Karmakar, 1992).This achievement in the level of productivity also includes bio-voltine technology with Japanese international cooperation agency.
In Thailand, silk is produced round the year.Mainly two types of silk worms e,g the cultured Bombycid and wild saturnidae are grown in the country, though most regions of Thailand have their own typical silks.At present, Thailand is trying to enlarge her scale of production to supplement the increasing demand of silk consumption in the world trade.
Countries of Japan, Uzbekistan, Republic of Korea and Vietnam have shown negative trend of growth during the same triennium.Japan, the, former largest silk producers in the world has withdrawn silk production activities gradually and now it almost stopped its production.In countries like Vietnam, Uzbekistan and Republic of Korea failed in good quantities of silk production in meeting the international standard.
In spite of fluctuations in the level of production, the role of Asian producer and markets are still vital.Asians are remaining to be consumers, and it is likely that growth will resume in the area.Thus, it is important to safeguard the role of these producing countries in the light of challenges facing them today (Jole, 2004).

Gini's coefficient concentration of percentage of raw silk production in India and major silk producing countries in Asia
Gini's coefficient concentration value indicates that relatively higher concentration of raw silk production is found in India than the major silk producing countries in Asia.The value of concentration as calculated in consecutive year by taking total raw silk of respective countries is G = 0.032 (Table 3).This shows that the concentration level of raw silk production in India is not only higher, but its share in the world's production is remarkably significant.

Conclusion
It is thus assessed and observed that the prospects of sericulture and allied activities in India and sericulturally nations in Asia require an urgent care and policy initiatives.This requirement needed fresh technological inputs to primary producers, more importantly, for evolving and establishing new systems of organizing production and marketing.The trend of total raw silk production and mulberry area in major Asian Countries and major producing states in India possesses non-uniformity in the mechanism of productivity and economic out come.Notably China and India, although, among major producing countries have added a pace of momentum in increasing productitivity and quality of raw silk in the world.Unlikely, this trend is well underway in Japan and Republic of Korea due to industrialization of the two countries.Well, recent economic turmoil in the World, especially in South East Asia, however, has been reflected in a decline (Ghosh, 1915;2000) in sales.Yet the overall regional consumption even in Asian Region is down, the pace was slowed by Asian recession, and by European processors opting for competing fibres.
Today's silk industrial regions needed a generic silk promotion campaign which could be a solution to the challenges.These concerted efforts from silk producers, converters and traders to improve the image of silk in international markets would take the sericulture industry to the glorious heights not only in India and Asian Region but in the World also.

Table 1 .
Area and Raw silk Production in Major Indian States during Triennium 1994-1997 to 2001-2004.

Table 2 .
Mulberry area and raw silk production in major Indian states Total raw silk production in major Asian countries duringTriennium 1994Triennium  -97 to 2001Triennium  -2004.    .

Table 3 .
Gini's coefficient concentration of raw silk production in India and major silk producing countries in Asia.