A MULTIPRONGED APPROACH FOR IMPROVING SEED AVAILABILITY DURING COMMERCIAL REARING SEASONS IN MUGA ECOSYSTEM

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Availability of quality seeds in muga culture for commercial rearing during May-June and Oct-Nov seasons is the biggest challenge, which severely affects the total muga silk production.Both the commercial seasons are preceded by seed and pre-seed seasons with highly unfavourable weather conditions, which affects the availability of quality Disease Free Layings (DFLs) due to low cocoon yield, reduced fecundity, poor hatching and male sterility.Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop an integrated approach to improve the availability of quality DFLs during commercial seasons.Towards this end different strategies are being developed and tested.Breeding for selecting muga lines with high fecundity has been taken up.To avoid unfavourable weather conditions during seed crops especially during summer months June-September, efforts are being made to identify the cooler regions in Northeastern states and to take up seed rearing in the selected regions.Wild muga that exhibit winter hibernation are being studied to identify the linked gene and to introgress it into cultivated population to completely avoid rearing during winter season.Adual-purpose cold reeling procedure has been developed, which has also been tested field level, to reel the silk and obtain live pupae for use in grainage.Through biotechnological approaches the realized fecundity has been increased.Improved mountages that provide enough space, aeration and reduced temperature are being tested for increasing the number of good cocoons and also reducing the male sterility due to high temperature.Other approaches such as rearing of seed cocoons in non-traditional areas having muga host plants such an Uttarakhand state, cold preservation of both DFLs and cocoons, new plantations in cooler regions, effective utilization of grainages developed under different government schemes through state governments, etc., are being explored to effectively increase the quality DFL production for use during commercial seasons in muga ecosystem.These approaches are of great promise and help in achieving 'Sustainability Development Goals 2020' of Central Silk Board.

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