SERICUL TURE AND THE PROCESS OF CHANGE - Institute for ...

Seripura, not a single landless has adopted sericulture. Again, even
among the land-holders, it is still confmed to only those who have
access to irrigation. The same is the case with a majority of sericulture
areas in Tamil Nadu. Moreover, especially in the case of the resourcepoor
fanners, neither the irrigated lands are available for lease, nor such
arrangements in sericulture give substantial returns to the lessee, with a
few exceptions. There are, however, some cases of sericulturists who go
for lease as an additional undertaking, when some practising
sericulturists want a break or do not like or unable to continue in
sericulture any more, though may like to reap a portion of its benefits. In
Seripura, as it has been mentioned earlier, a majority of the fully
irrigated land-holders have gone for sericulture, irrespective of their
land-holding status. Further, the land allocated for mulberry from the
fully irrigated lands is proportionately high in most of the cases. All
these only reinforce the significance of land and irrigation in the
adoption of sericulture. The adoption of sericulture is also related to the
soil type and the distance to the lands. Sharing of water from the same
source, which is a common phenomenon in Tamil Nadu, also works as a
constraint in going for or successfully carrying out sericulture, especially
when the crop choices of the sharing parties are divergent (Gregory
1995c). Water-logging is another constraint in continuing in sericulture
as experienced by some of the drop-outs in Seripura.
Capital and Credit: Capital requirement is another factor that
comes in the way of some of the potential takers for sericulture. Even
the minimum investment needed to take up sericulture is believed to be
higher than for many other crops. Thus, the high initial investment
obviously restricts those who cannot afford, especially the weaker
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