Sericulture is an agro-based industry. It involves rearing of silkworms for the production of raw silk, which is the yarn obtained out of cocoons spun by certain species of insects. The major activities of sericulture comprises of food-plant cultivation to feed the silkworms which spin silk cocoons and reeling the cocoons for unwinding the silk filament for value added benefits such as processing and weaving.
Sericulture, or silk production, from the moth, Bombyx mori (L.), has a long and colorful history unknown to most people. Although there are several commerciddle of the first century A.D., writers in Rome were complaining about the sumptuous silk garments that rendered women naked in the streets. But the Chinese had guarded the secrets of sericulture so closely the early Romans never learned it, and Virgil thought the thread was derived from combing the fuzz off leaves.
