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Central Sericultural Germplasm Resource Centre (CSGRC), Hosur, has shared knowledge on tropical tasar silkworm rearing with TNAU’s Forest College and Research Institute (FCRI-Mettupalayam).

The knowledge-sharing, according to N.K. Bhatia, Director, CSGRC, envisages initiating students into non-mulberry sericulture and pave way for exploration of opportunities for integrating forest-based silk production into forestry ecosystems.

Prof. Bhatia, who visited the FCRI earlier this week to review a project titled ‘Identification of Promising Mulberry Fruit-Yielding Accessions’ with funding from Central Silk Board (CSB), mooted knowledge-sharing for scaling up research with A. Balasubramanian, Dean (Forestry).

The FCRI has, as part of the project, raised a mulberry fruit-yielding garden and maintains a mulberry germplasm collection, silk archive, sericulture laboratory, silkworm rearing room and mulberry nursery.

An interactive meeting Prof. Bhatia had with faculty members of the Department of Sericulture in FCRI witnessed discussions on the life cycles and ecological requirements of eri, muga and tasar silkworms and their association with forest ecosystems, and techniques involved in muga and tasar silkworm seed production.

The interaction, K.A. Murugesh, Professor and Head, Department of Sericulture, said, equipped faculty members with further technical insights into the biology, conservation and production practices of non-mulberry silkworms.

N.K. Bhatia elaborated on the biodiversity of silk moths, silkworm predators and diversity of wild tasar cocoons.

The faculty learnt about the ecological relationships, biological diversity and scientific rearing practices associated with wild and non-mulberry silkworms.