PROGRESSIVE ASSOCIATION OF SERICULTURISTS (PAS):AN EXPERIENCE OF BAIF IN SILK PRODUCT MARKETING AND PROMOTION IN MAHARASHTRA

While sericulture has proved to provide gainful employment, institutional innovations to bring in synergy amongst various stakeholder groups would help to augment higher income at the hand of primary producers. Various interventions across the sericulture value chain for setting up replicable business models, which can be networked effectively to create opportunities for rural enterprises to take root and also to sustain, were taken up by the Sericulture Division of BAIF, an NGO. Consistent efforts made by BAIF in mobilizing the primary producers to Self Help Group and further federating it to ‘PAS' Silk Producers Cooperative Society Ltd., are detailed. Role and linkages amongst the primary producers, viz., silkworm rearers, reelers, twisters, weavers, and fashion designers to manage the entire value chain and marketing of cocoons, raw silk, fabric and sericulture inputs to benefit of all stakeholders involved in sericulture production chain are elaborated. Efforts made to increase the profit margin of ‘PAS' through collaboration with other cooperatives in mutual product marketing are also detailed. Future strategies to nurture and scale up the PAS with support from various developmental schemes including the Catalytic Development Programme (CDP) of Central Silk Board and Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana (MKSP) project are also discussed.