GUWAHATI, July 24 - The State government has launched a Rs 460-crore �Muga Mission� to raise the muga production by ten times more than what it is today. The mission will be operative for a period of ten years from the financial year of 2017-18. The preliminary work under the mission has already started with the State government releasing an amount of Rs 100 crore.
Sources in the Sericulture Directorate told this correspondent that in the 2017-18 financial year, the State produced 156.96 metric tons of raw muga, while in the preceding financial year, it could produce 139 metric tons of raw yearn of this golden silk.
Meanwhile, the World Bank-sponsored APART (Assam�s Agri-business and Rural Transformation Project) has taken up the districts of undivided Kamrup, Lakhimpur, Biswanath, Jorhat and Sivasagar for plantation of muga and eri host plants, setting up rearing houses and providing equipment support to the sericulture farmers.
The directorate has already completed the process of awareness programmes for selecting the beneficiaries of the APART programmes in the five districts. Committees headed by deputy commissioners of the districts would select the beneficiaries.
In Darrang district, ventures for development and expansion of mulberry silk sector are undertaken under the Rs 29.54-crore Northeastern Regional Textile Policy Development Scheme (NERTPS) of the Union Ministry of Textiles. The initiatives undertaken under this scheme started in the financial year of 2015-16 and its initial period of three years has been extended by one year to the financial year of 2019-20.
GUWAHATI, July 24 - The State government has launched a Rs 460-crore �Muga Mission� to raise the muga production by ten times more than what it is today. The mission will be operative for a period of ten years from the financial year of 2017-18. The preliminary work under the mission has already started with the State government releasing an amount of Rs 100 crore.
Sources in the Sericulture Directorate told this correspondent that in the 2017-18 financial year, the State produced 156.96 metric tons of raw muga, while in the preceding financial year, it could produce 139 metric tons of raw yearn of this golden silk.
Meanwhile, the World Bank-sponsored APART (Assam�s Agri-business and Rural Transformation Project) has taken up the districts of undivided Kamrup, Lakhimpur, Biswanath, Jorhat and Sivasagar for plantation of muga and eri host plants, setting up rearing houses and providing equipment support to the sericulture farmers.
The directorate has already completed the process of awareness programmes for selecting the beneficiaries of the APART programmes in the five districts. Committees headed by deputy commissioners of the districts would select the beneficiaries.
In Darrang district, ventures for development and expansion of mulberry silk sector are undertaken under the Rs 29.54-crore Northeastern Regional Textile Policy Development Scheme (NERTPS) of the Union Ministry of Textiles. The initiatives undertaken under this scheme started in the financial year of 2015-16 and its initial period of three years has been extended by one year to the financial year of 2019-20.
