A Study On The Sericulture in Turkey

Abstract

Sericulture, or silk farming, is the cultivation of silkworms to produce silk. Although there are several commercial species of silkworms, Silk was believed to have first been produced in China as early as the Neolithic Period. Sericulture has become an important cottage industry in countries such as Brazil, China, France, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, and Russia. Today, China and India are the two main producers, with more than 60% of the world's annual production. In this case, the sericulture production in Turkey, as the export-oriented shows could increase in the future. Sericulture production was begun in Anatolia which is Asian part of Turkey in A.D. 552 during Byzantium Emperor of Justinianus. The city of Bursa became a textile city which was famous for silk and silk trade centre. In middle of 16th silk textile industry was developed. Apart from city of Bursa, cities of Istanbul, dirne, Amasya, Denizli, Izmir and Konya were important sericulture centers In addition; the increase of government support in sericult production is also hope for the future of sericulture production in Turkey. In this study, using the silkworm cocoon data between the years of 1991-2019, the future 5-year production is estimated. For this, estimates were tested in the MINITAB program using the ARIMA Model, which is widely used in agricultural production estimates. Unconscious use of pesticides in Turkey, problems with mulberry tree cultivation, technical problems and rural-urban migration results are known to be important issues of the sericulture sector.However, thanks to government subsidies and export-oriented policies, it has been determined that silkworm cocoon production will increase in the next 5 years.