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

CHAPTER II
THE FIELD AND THE PEOPLE
Sericulture in Tamil Nadu had long been confined to a few
districts alone. However, the introduction of the Intensive Sericulture
Development Programme by the Government of India, in the Seventies,
led to a rapid expansion of sericulture in the state. The National
sericulture Project (NSP), initiated in 1989, has become a boon to the
development of sericulture, bringing more districts with substantial
sericulture concentration into the sericulture map of Tamil Nadu.
Dharmapuri district is in the north western region of Tamil Nadu
bordering Karnataka state. It is the pioneering district in Tamil Nadu, in
going for sericulture in a big way. Its share in the total sericulture output
of Tamil Nadu has been over 60 per cent. As on 1 April 1993 -- as the
records of the Department of Sericulture, Tamil Nadu shows-mulberry
occupied an area of 12,200 hectares in the district, constituting about
three per cent of the total cropped area of the district. The irrigated
mulberry area accounts for about 83 per cent of the total mulberry area
and forms about 12 per cent of the net irrigated area of the District.
There are 23 sericulture divisions under the Department of
Sericulture, Tamil Nadu. These are spread over 22 districts of the State.
Significantly, five sericulture divisions are located in the Dharmapuri
district alone. These include Pennagaram, Hosur and Dharmapuri. Each
sericulture division is under the jurisdiction of an Assistant Director of
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