Evaluation of silkworm rearing houses from Western Maharashtra

Abstract

Maharashtra has emerged as highly potential state for silk production during last one decade. Many modern technologies have been adopted by the farmers resulting in high and quality silk production. Among various technologies, silkworm rearing house is one of the most important for success of the silk crop. The farmers in Maharashtra have constructed silkworm rearing houses with large variability in design, construction materials, etc.  It is time to study these rearing houses for improvement in silk production. A study was conducted in three districts of Western Maharashtra during the period from August -2018 to March-2019 to know present status of design, materials used in  construction, structures, construction cost and various other parameters related to rearing houses for mulberry silkworm Bombyx mori L. The data was collected from sericulture farmers by personal visits and interaction at the sites. It was found that only 12.5 percent farmers possess rearing house with modern amenities for silkworm rearing. About 25 percent were having medium level structures where as 62.5 percent of the farmer’s constructed low cost rearing house. The present study revealed the exact status of rearing house structures available with farmers in relation to the size, area of the rearing house, materials used for construction, location, actual area available for rearing of silkworm, capacity of dfls (Disease free layings) to be brushed and income generated. The data was also analysed for the various correlation and regression analysis to know the relationship status between the rearing house structures, area, income and many other factors. In the present investigation it was realised that, intervention of civil engineers is highly required in planning of rearing house construction, selection of site, materials to be used, and area to be considered for construction, passive heating and cooling, etc.