Special package for sericulture farmers being worked out

New Delhi, March 27 (IANS) The centre in consultation with the states and the Silk Board is working out a special package to address the problems faced by sericulture farmers, parliament was informed Tuesday.

Sericulture farmers have been incurring huge losses due to the steep fall in the prices of cocoon after the government in 2011 cut the import duty on raw silk from 30 to 5 percent. They have been demanding imposition of import duty up to 31 percent.

"Last year I reduced the import duty on raw silk from 30 percent to 5 percent. It is mainly to protect the weavers, large numbers of weavers in the whole of India because they were going to practically close there activity but it has caused some problems to sericulture farmers," Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in the Lok Sabha.

"I would like to address the problems of these sericulture farmers by working out special package in consultation with state governments and the Silk Board," he added.

The price of cocoons, which was around Rs.350 a kg, has slumped to Rs.160 a kg, while that of raw silk has gone down to Rs.1,800 from Rs.2,600 earlier, hitting the sericulture farmers badly.