Silkworm Breeding
in India
Sham S. Misri
I should
like to express, at the outset my sense of happiness with the fact that after
rich experience I have been able to write some ideas about the breeding of
silkworms, which I feel may be of some help to a beginner. I am sure the book
will be of great practical value.
I should
like to take this opportunity to drive home the point that we have to develop a
scientific base for development of sericulture in India.
The impact
of Mendel’s laws of Inheritance on today’s sericulture is so great that it is
difficult to comprehend it fully. The most important implication of Mendel’s
work is that we can tailor breeds to our needs through genetic manipulation of
factors controlling yield and quality.
The western
countries were quick to take advantage of Mendel’s work for improving live
stocks. In our country, however, silkworm breeding research has been undertaken
and is progressing well.
Breeding in
most countries has passed through two distinct stages. During the first phase
of work, the breeding methodology was mainly based on selection. Because of the
large variability that was available the success achieved was quite very
impressive.
However, as
time passed, it became evident that more sophisticated breeding methods were
devised to continue further the process of further genetic improvement. A
characteristic feature of this phase was to resort to hybridization. In breeding
one has to consider what crosses might be made. Of course, keeping a wide
genetic base in a breeding programme is universally accepted. This will ensure
introduction of new material to be put into crosses with adapted genotypes.
However, there is nothing sacred about using fixed varieties as parents and it
is certainly desirable if one has a very superior stock in F-1 or any
succeeding generations to cross this stock with lines or varieties having
complementary characteristics. This assumes that the superior stock or line
carries superior genes and thus provides a greater probability of fixing at
least some of these genes in the resulting variety.
