SSC
The rearing of silkworms for the production of raw silk is called:
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Answer: Option A ā Sericulture
Detailed Solution
Sericulture is the rearing of silkworms to produce raw silk. The word comes from the Greek "serikos" (silken) and the Latin "cultura" (cultivation).
Stages of sericulture:
- Growing the food plants of silkworms, such as mulberry, on which most silkworms feed.
- Rearing silkworms: the eggs hatch into larvae (caterpillars), which feed on leaves for about a month and grow rapidly.
Cocoon formation: the mature larva spins a cocoon around itself, using a single continuous thread of silk produced from its salivary glands. A single cocoon can contain a thread hundreds of metres long.
Reeling: the cocoons are boiled or steamed (which kills the pupa inside), and the silk filament is unwound and reeled into raw silk yarn.
Types of silk produced in India:
Mulberry silk: the most common, accounting for most of India's silk production. Karnataka is the largest producer, followed by Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
Tasar (tussar) silk: produced by wild silkworms feeding on arjun and asan trees, mainly in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Odisha. Jharkhand is the largest producer of tasar silk.
Eri silk: produced by silkworms feeding on castor leaves, mainly in Assam and the north-east. It is called "ahimsa silk" because the moth is allowed to emerge before the silk is processed.
Muga silk: a golden-yellow silk produced only in Assam, with a Geographical Indication (GI) tag.
Silk in India:
- India is the second largest producer of silk in the world, after China, and the largest consumer of silk.
- India is the only country that produces all four major commercial varieties of silk: mulberry, tasar, eri and muga.
- The Central Silk Board, set up in 1948, has its headquarters in Bengaluru.
- Famous silk saris include Kanjeevaram (Tamil Nadu), Banarasi (Uttar Pradesh), Mysore silk (Karnataka), Pochampally (Telangana) and Baluchari (West Bengal).
Other "-cultures":
- Apiculture: beekeeping (honey production).
- Pisciculture: fish farming.
- Vermiculture: rearing of earthworms, used for making vermicompost.
- Floriculture: growing flowers.
Why not the other options?
- āApiculture is the rearing of bees.
- āPisciculture is the rearing of fish.
- āVermiculture is the rearing of earthworms.
Quick tip
Remember: Sericulture = silkworms; Apiculture = bees; Pisciculture = fish; Vermiculture = earthworms; India produces all four silks (mulberry, tasar, eri, muga).
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This question tests your understanding of Agriculture in India, a key topic in the General Knowledge section. The detailed solution above uses a step-by-step approach to show the reasoning, and where available, a shortcut that helps you solve similar questions in under 90 seconds during the actual exam.
This topic covers agriculture in India: cropping seasons (kharif, rabi and zaid), major food and cash crops and their leading producer states, irrigation, the Green, White, Blue and other agricultural revolutions, and allied activities such as animal husbandry and fisheries. Questions usually ask which crop belongs to which season, which state is the largest producer of a crop, and which revolution relates to which product. For example, the White Revolution relates to milk and was led by Verghese Kurien, and the Blue Revolution relates to fisheries. Producer rankings can change from year to year, so check the latest data for those questions. Practise the agriculture in India questions below, written in the style of the general awareness sections of exams such as SSC, banking, railways, CUET GAT, MAH CET and CLAT. Each question comes with a detailed explanation that adds related facts, so every question helps you revise more than one point.