aDepartment of Agricultural Marketing Co-operation and Business Management, College of Agriculture, University of Agricultural Sciences, GKVK, Bangalore-560 065, Karnataka
bDepartment of Agricultural Economics, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore-560 065, Karnataka
Online published on 10 September, 2013.
The study has assessed the socio-economic characters, financial viability, employment generation capacity and constraints being faced by silk reelers of various reeling systems in Chikkaballapura district of Karnataka. Four major reeling units, viz. charaka, cottage basin, filature basin and multi-end basin have been identified based on the preliminary survey in the study area. The data have been analyzed using tabular analysis, costreturn structure and simple financial analysis. The study has revealed that high investment and high risk technologies like filature basin and multi-end basin are practised by the lower age-group entrpreuners. Raw silk reeled per basin per year was least in charaka (661 kg) and higher in multi-end (859 kg) basin. The net returns per basin per year have been found least in charaka ( 54,546) and higher in multi-end ( 3,05,405). The benefit-cost ratio has been worked out to be low in charaka (1.20) and high in multi-end (1.04). The employment generation is high in charaka reeling units and reeling is the operation which generates maximum employment irrespective of the reeling system. Working capital and labour shortage are the major constraints being faced by reelers in the study area.
Silk reeling, employment generation, non-farm livelihood, Karnataka
