Excelsior Correspondent
BILLAWAR, May 29: Minister of State for Fisheries Co-operatives Finance & Elections, Dr Manohar Lal Sharma, today visited cocoon auction market here at Kishanpur.
The auction market that started on May 18, 2013 has witnessed huge rush of traders from within and outside the state with about 2500 farmers of the area having sold their cocoons for over Rs.1.50 crore till date. The auction would continue till June 13.
More than one hundred buyers from within Jammu and Kashmir and outside states have come to purchase white bi-voltine silk cocoons in the open auction at average rate ranging between Rs.600-650. The highest bid till date stood at 804/kg of a lot from Thara Kalwal cluster area.
On the occasion, farmers raised various demands before the Minister, including separate toilet blocks for females and males at market complex, besides better provisions for development of sericulture in Kathua district. The Minister said that Billawar Tehsil being no 1 Tehsil as regards production of silk cocoons in Jammu and Kashmir needs more attention for further development of sericulture.
The Deputy Director Sericulture Kathua, Sheikh Ammanullah, apprised the Minister about the sales made during the auction. He informed that the farmers Nek Ram, Isher Dass and Rattan Chand all residents of different pockets of the Billawar earned Rs 100000, Rs 60000 and Rs 55000 respectively from silk cocoon crop completed within a span of less than a month’s period.
It was further apprised that three clusters under cluster promotion programme have started functioning from current financial year in Gujroo Nagrota,Thara Kalwal and Dangara areas of the Billawar.
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