South Kashmir people associated with the business of silk farming, that is rearing of silkworms for production of silk are badly affected due to sharp plummet in the rates of silk worms. The annual production cost has sharply dropped due to the “nexus’’ between the sericulture department and the silk reelers.

The silk rearers buy seed and treat it produce larvae which is purchased by reelers, both local and from outside the state, in markets set up by the sericulture department. However the rearers however complain that the rates have come down sharply from Rs 1500 per kilogram last year. The rates have touched 500-600 per kilogram.

Abdul Rashid, a rearer from Tral town of Pulwama district alleged that reelers in sericulture department are manipulating the rates. Only few of them got about Rs 700 per kilogram. If the reeler gets Rs 4000 per kilogram for the yarn they produce from worms, isn’t it unfair that they get only 500, asked Rashid.

The sericulture department however refutes the allegations maintaining that the rates for the worms and the yarn are set by a national trend

According to Shabir Ahmad, Deputy Director Sericulture, they are just the facilitators. They make the rearers and the reelers meet at a market. It is due to the fall in the rates at the national level that the rears get less money for their produce. The yarn rates have come down from Rs 3500 per kilogram to 2300 rupees per kilogram at the national level.

Due to the apathy of sericulture department, many rearers are mulling to give up the trade.