Central silk board has set up high capacity state-of-the-art silkworm egg cold storage plant at Mysore in Karnataka where up to 1 crore disease free layings (dfls) can be comfortably preserved in this plant. In effect, with this plant, the total storage capacity of the Mysore facility would go up to 1.5 crore dfls.

The new plant was inaugurated by Union Textiles Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar is expected to give a boost to the production of import substitute bivoltine raw silk in India.

The size of the cold rooms has been specially designed to suit the requirements of sericulture industry and to utilize the space effectively for preserving hibernated bivoltine silkworm seed under different schedules, ranging from 4 to 10 months.

The new plant runs on a DX system, is constructed with pre-fabricated double skinned insulated panel, and is highly energy efficient. The plant is equipped with PLC based data logger system for automatic monitoring of temperature and humidity inside the cold rooms with alarms. All control panel boards are microprocessor-based, connected with the data logger

Cold storage plants are crucial in silkworm egg production system, principally to enable uninterrupted and continuous supply of basic and commercial silkworm seed. The silkworm eggs are preserved in these plants for short term or long term (up to 10 months) to regulate seed supply, matching the demand. The plants also oversee systematic incubation of silkworm eggs prior to its dispatch to farmers.

National Silkworm Seed Organization (NSSO), the mulberry silkworm seed production and management arm of Central Silk Board, operates the cold storage plants set up at Mysore. Hosur and Dehradun will manage its seed production and distribution across the country.

The new plant has been necessitated by the increasing seed production targets of National Silkworm Seed Organization (NSSO) and the leading role southern India has to assume in the coming years in this area.