Strategies for Diversifying By-Product Utilisation in Mulberry and Tasar Sericulture: Current Scenario and Future Prospects

Sericulture is an agro-based industry that concentrates mainly on raising silkworms for the intent of producing silk. Apart from yielding lustrous silk fabrics, the industry generates a chain of by-products that can be utilized for realizing higher economic gains. Secondary products include unused mulberry leaves, root and wood biomass, mulberry fruits, mulberry plant waste, left over bedding material from rearing houses, larval litter or excrements, unused pupae, pierced and discarded cocoons, superseded cocoons and chrysalids, waste moths, reeling and thread wastes, etc. Processing of sericultural wastes and by-products can considerably elevate the income of farmers beyond the primary activity of producing silk cocoons and raw silk. The intermediates in the seri-farming enterprise can serve as biologically active resources with suitable applications in field of pharmaceutical, cosmetic industry, compost, vermicompost, organic fertilizers and plant growth regulators, paper and cellulose industry, textile manufacturing industries, organic food and confectionary industry and bioprospecting. Apart from serving as a plant with high phyto-remediation potential, by-products of mulberry cultivation, can be effectively managed to generate bio-fuels. Also, attempts to harness the nutraceutical aspects and dietary benefits of serigenous insects should be addressed to combat high-risk diseases as COVID-19. Thus, the present review focusses on diversification of seri-resources or by-products for multitude of uses to gain remuneration and tap the income generation potential of the sericultural sector broadening its sustainability.