1Central Sericultural Research and Training Institute, Central Silk Board, Mysore-570 008, Karnataka, India.
2Regional Sericultural Research Station, Central Silk Board, Salem-636 003, Tamil Nadu, India.
Research Extension Centre, Central Silk Board, Srivilliputtur-626125, India
*Corresponding author's email: sakthivelcsb@hotmail.com
Online published on 24 July, 2012.
Thirunelveli and Virudunagar districts of southern Tamil Nadu have congenial agro-climatic conditions to practice sericulture. However, sericulture development is still in nascent stage in these two districts with the area under mulberry of 419.92 and 107.80 ha, respectively. The farmers would accept sericulture as a viable occupation only if it is more profitable than the major crops cultivated in the area. Therefore, the economics of sericulture was compared with the major crops namely, paddy, maize, green gram, sugarcane and cotton cultivated in Thirunelveli and Virudunagar districts. The results of the study indicated that the profit earned from sericulture was comparatively higher than that of all other major crops cultivated in the area. This shows that sericulture has potential for development in Thirunelveli and Virudunagar districts.
Economics, Major crops, Sericulture, Southern, Tamil Nadu
