Silkworm Breeding in India

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.