GUWAHATI, Dec 21 – Harsh climatic condition is affecting production of muga, the organic golden silk of Assam. This climatic condition has affected particularly, the aharua (June-July) and bhadiya (August) seed crops of this silk variety. This, in turn, is adversely influencing the commercial production of this precious silk yarn, said Joint Director of the State’s Sericulture Department C K Dihingiya. He was talking to The Assam Tribune.

This problem in muga production is essentially faced in the area of rearing the seed crops—the aharua, bhadiya, aghonua (December-January) and chatua (February-March). The other two muga crops – jethua (April-May) and katiya (October-November) in the cycle, are mainly grown for commercial purposes, Dihingiya said.

Faced with such a situation, muga farmers in some areas like in the Upper Assam districts, and in the districts of Goalpara, Kokrajhar, Baska, Chirang and Udalguri, and in the southern part of Kamrup district, have started deferring the katiya crop period to the months of November and December.

The Sericulture Department is also encouraging such a shift in the muga crop cycle, considering the changes in the atmosphere.

The Joint Director of Sericulture said that this situation has resulted in the fall in the total seed crop yields in 2007, 2008 and 2009.

In consequence, commercial muga yarn production in the State was limited to 86 metric tones, against the target of 120 metric tones, in 2007, 101 metric tones against the target of 125 metric tones in 2008 and till September this year, 57 metric tones of muga yarn could be produced, against the annual target of 134 metric tones.

The reduced production of commercial muga yarn is associated with the impact of the failure in seed crop production mainly on the katiya commercial crop. This time also, such an apprehension exists.

However, the entire picture of katiya crop production of the current year is expected to be clear only by the end of the current month. Katiya crop is the main crop as far as economy of muga is concerned.

The ideal temperature for muga crop is between 24 degree Celsius and 32 degree Celsius. Muga crop is vulnerable to the impact of variation in the atmospheric temperature due to the outdoor rearing of the worms that produce the cocoons for this variety of silk yarn.

The State has around 30,000 muga farmer families and their highest concentration is found in the districts of Lakhimpur, Dhemaji, Dibrugarh, Sivasagar, Jorhat, Kamrup and Goalpara.

The State has around 7,000 hectares of its land under som plantation. The major traditional somanis are located in Lakhimpur, Dhemaji, Dibrugarh, Sivasagar, Jorhat, Golaghat, Kamrup and Goalpara districts. In the BTAD areas, new areas of such plantations have come up recently.

Somanis are the som tree plantations that host the muga worms. Per hectare of land under such plantations has a seed requirement of 2,000 disease-free layings (DFL) in a crop year.

The plantations of sowalo, which serve as an alternative to somanis, are also used in some places to host the muga worms.