Silk reeling units of international standard will be set up at Shidlaghatta, Ramanagar and Belgaum, according to Minister for Sericulture S Shivanna.

Speaking after giving away awards to silk reelers and also progressive sericulturists, in Bangalore, on Saturday, Mr Shivanna decried the neglect of the silk industry. “But we are fortunate that despite neglect, no cases of suicide have been reported since 2003”, he added.

During his visits, the farmers evinced great interest in sericulture cultivation. Following their request, more subsidy would be given for drip irrigation, silk-worm rearing centres etc.

The Minister said that the state had not been benefited much from the visit of scientists to foreign countries to study sericulture cultivation and also silk technology there.

“Instead, it is better to send farmers abroad. India can compete in the international market only, if it adopted modern technology ”, he observed.

The following persons were presented awards:
Progressive Sericulturist Award:S Narayanappa of Kolar-First prize (Rs 25,000), V R Balachandra of Srinivaspura-second prize (Rs 20,000) and B N Sadananda of Nanjangud -third prize (Rs 15,000).

Progressive Women Sericulturist Award:Parvathamma Chandrappa Rangapur of Arakalagoodu-first prize (Rs 25,000), Indira G Patil of Hukkeri -second prize (Rs 20,000) and Susheelamma Iyengar of Chitradurga-third prize (Rs 15,000).

Commissioner for Sericulture Industry Mohammed Sanaulla, Secretary for Commerce and Industry Mahendra Jain and Director of Sericulture M M Khaji were present on the occasion.