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Evaluation of Mulberry Varieties for Rearing Performance and Economic Traits of Silkworm Races
Authors: Chudamani Pant

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Mulberry silkworm is a monophagous, which feeds only on the mulberry leaves. The agro-climatic conditions of about 38 districts in mid hills 750m-1500m (for bivoltine sericulture) and about 20 districts in the Terai belt 100m-750m (for Bivoltine and cross breed sericulture in specific seasons) and also the socio-economic settings are ideally suitable for the development of sericulture industry in Nepal. Sericulture is considered as a re-emerging industry for poverty alleviation in SAARC region including Nepal. Sericulture act as a magnet for smallholder farmer as the investment is nominal and risk is minimal. The various parameter of silkworm such as net feed consumption, feces weight of 5th instar larva, efficiency of cocoon production (ECP), efficiency of conversion of ingested food (ECI), efficiency of conversion of digested food(ECD), body weight of larva, highest dry weight of cocoon etc are directly influenced by the varieties of mulberry used as feed. research conducted for evaluation of different mulberry varieties (S-36 , khopasi-1 , Chinese hybrid ,kanva-2 , & Mysore local) used for rearing of silkworm (Bivoltine J12×C12) in Chitwan, Nepal (Y. dhakal) revealed that kanva-2 variety of mulberry was superior having highest body weight of larva , highest dry weight of cocoon, ECI(15%) , ECD(17.59%) , ECP(8.57%) but the net feed consumption (27.4g/larva) , amount of feces weight of 5th instar (3.68g/larva) and amount of left over feed (5.05kg/200 larva) was found to be highest in khopasi-1. The same result was found from different mulberry varieties (kanva-2, khopasi-1, Ichinose & Husan) used for rearing silkworm (J12, C12,J12×C12) showing the kanva-2 variety of mulberry and J12×C12 genotype of silkworm were found to be superior.
Keywords: Silkworm; Sericulture; Mulberry; Cocoon