International Journal of Development in Social Sciences and Humanities

The sericulture sector occupies an important position in Karnataka’s rural economy because of its employment-generating capacity, relatively intensive use of family labour, and contribution to farm income. Karnataka continues to be one of India’s leading mulberry silk-producing states. The study has two objectives: 1) to examine the performance and growth of the sericulture sector in Karnataka and 2) to analyse the trend in growth of area under mulberry cultivation and raw silk production in the state. In Karnataka, mulberry cultivation expanded by 45.72 per cent, while raw silk production increased by 35.16 per cent. The results indicate a strong positive correlation between the area under mulberry cultivation and raw silk production in Karnataka. The Pearson correlation coefficient is r = 0.9032, which indicates that increases in mulberry cultivation area are strongly associated with increases in raw silk production. The mean area under mulberry cultivation during the study period was 104,577.60 ha, with a standard deviation of 12,902.27 ha. The mean raw silk production was 11,149.66 MT, with a standard deviation of 1,269.84 MT. The coefficient of determination (R² = 0.8158) indicates that approximately 81.58 per cent of the variation in raw silk production is associated with variation in the area under mulberry cultivation. The remaining variation may be related to other factors such as cocoon productivity, silkworm rearing efficiency, climatic conditions, disease incidence and technological practices. The p-value of 0.00034 is less than 0.01, indicating that the observed correlation is statistically significant at the 1%. Therefore, with r = 0.9032 and p = 0.00034 < 0.01, the null hypothesis is rejected, while the alternative hypothesis is accepted. The analysis therefore suggests that expansion of mulberry cultivation has been closely associated with increased silk production in Karnataka, although improvements in productivity, silkworm breeds, irrigation, rearing practices and reeling technology also influence output.