Aug , 2021, Volume : 2 Article : 9
Teacher who became a role model in Sericulture
Author : Parameswaranaik J and Shafi Afroz
Cite this article as:
Parameswaranaik, J. and Afroz, S. (2021) Teacher who became a role model in Sericulture. Food and Scientific Reports. 2 (8) 44-45.
ABSTRACT
This is a success story of Mr. Reban Choudhury is working as a school teacher in a venture school at Sipajhar block of Darrang district in Assam. He graduated in BA from Krishna Kanta Handiqui State Open University. He was having a very keen interest in agriculture and allied activities since childhood. In the year 2015, Mr. Reban Choudhury attended an awareness programme on mulberry sericulture which was organized by Research Extension Center-Mangaldoi (Assam); under the aegis of CSRTI-Berhampore. This training has changed his life to persue his dream. Now he is a successful sericulturist.
Keywords: training, success story, sericulture, silk worm
Mr. Reban Choudhury is working as a school teacher in a venture school at Sipajhar block of Darrang district in Assam. He dwells with his family in Haldha village located in Sipajhar tehsil. He graduated in BA from Krishna Kanta Handiqui State Open University. He was having a very keen interest in agriculture and allied activities since childhood. Sipajhar block is extremely affected form the frequent floods and consequences poor farmers were losing their livelihood mainly through farming. At this crucial juncture, he was demonstrating noble cropping pattern for farmers to adopt which can withstand flood situation.
The Situation
Mr. Reban Choudhury had started farming with his family on 1.6 acres of inherited land of. He was growing paddy but fetching but very poor returns, i.e., ₹15,000- ₹20,000 per year. Due to frequent floods in his region, farmers were forced to go for mono-cropping. He was not satisfied with the poor income from his land. This circumstance had pushed him for choosing subsidiary enterprise for generating income and also to demonstrate to other farmers in his village. At the same time, he came to know about sericulture from few progressive farmers of nearby villages who were earning a good income from mulberry sericulture round the year. Consequently, Mr. Reben Choudhary got motivated and started gathering more information about mulberry sericulture.
The Drivers
In the year 2015, Mr. Reban Choudhury attended an awareness programme on mulberry sericulture which was organized by Research Extension Center-Mangaldoi (Assam); under the aegis of CSRTI-Berhampore. During this period, his wife, Smt. Bhanita Choudhury was selected for as a beneficiary of Intensive Bi-voltine Sericulture Development Project (IBSDP) under North East Region Textile promotion Scheme (NERTPS) of Ministry of Textiles, Govt. of India. The family received financial assistance for construction of scientific silkworm rearing house, rearing appliances (including plastic collapsible mountage), vermi-compost shed and also technical training programmes by Central Silk Board R&D institutes.
Mr. Reban Choudhury established mulberry garden in his portion of land (0.6 acre) with high yielding S1635 mulberry variety with wide spacing (3`×3`). After mulberry garden establishment, he commenced silkworm rearing. Initially, he reared 50 disease free layings (dfls). of SK6×SK7 silkworm hybrid, which produces a quality raw silk yarn.
The Impact
Mr. Reban Choudhury could harvest 25-28 kg of healthy cocoons for 50 dfls per crop from two favorable climatic conditions in a year. Accordingly, he was brushing 100 dfls per year and were earning around Rs. 20,000 per year. Later, he expand his rearing capacity, and were brushing 100 dfls per crop (i.e., 200 dfls/year), and resulted in harvest of 85 to 90 kg of mulberry cocoons. The produced cocoons were sold as seed cocoon to Silkworm Seed Production Centre, Jorhat with a rate of. Rs 500/kg, which were giving a returns of approx. Rs 45,000/- per year in two crop (Baisakhi crop & Agrhayani crop). Additionally, he also established a Kisan nursery for raising mulberry saplings during 2016-17 and earned a profit of about Rs. 50,000. Mr. Reban Choudhury had also prepared vermi-compost from sericulture waste and farm waste produced in his field. The same compost was utilized in the field for maintaining good soil health in his land.
The farmers in his village started to follow his practice and initiated sericulture as a subsidiary enterprise for generating additional livelihoods. occupation and considered him as a role model for sericulture in the village. Mr. Reban Choudhury is a role model for sericulture in his village and received the ‘BEST MULBERRY FARMER AWARD’ of Haldha village from REC-Mangaldoi (Assam) and ‘BEST SILKWORM SEED REARER AWARD’ from Silkworm Seed Production Centre, Jorhat, Assam.
Future Plan:
Mr. Reban Choudhury is planning to establish a chawki rearing center which would help the farmers in his village for getting quality and healthy chawki worms for silkworm rearing. He is having foresight that, the introduction of chawki rearing in the region might helps in adding one additional crop in the region, as chawki worm rearing instead of DFLs brushing reduces the cropping period at farmers’ level.
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