Pakistan Forest Institute
Peshawar, Pakistan
Peshawar, Pakistan
Sericulture has been practiced as a cottage industry in Pakistan since its inception in 1947. Punjab was the first province to start sericulture immediately after partition followed by Azad Kashmir in 1951; NWFP in 1952; Baluchistan in 1959 and Sindh in 1976. However the industry could not progressed well due to lack of training and research facilities in the country. The silkworm rearers used old traditional and crude methods for cocoon production, mostly in Punjab around the irrigated plantations, by obtaining leaves from the local full height mulberry trees grown for timber production.
Establishment of research and training unit was imperative to create research and training facilities for the development of Sericulture. Hence a sericulture unit was established at PFI, Peshawar in 1984 under a development project funded by FAO/UNDP with the objectives to conduct research studies in sericulture and moriculture and train people at various professional levels to promote sericulture industry in the country. Korean and Chinese experts provided technical know-how in silkworm rearing and silk seed technology.