Role of foliar sprays in sericulture industry

Abstract

Foliar spray is a type of feeding technique to the plants by applying liquid fertilizers directly to their leaves. The absorption of essential nutrients takes place largely through the stomata of leaves and through the epidermis. Mulberry (Morus sp.) is a deep rooted high biomass producing foliage crop cultivated as a sole food for silkworm, Bombyx mori L. But due to repeated harvests and soil problems, mulberry is exhibiting nutrient deficiencies in recent years. Although crops need low amounts of micronutrients (Monreal et al., 2015) but still half of the cultivated world’s soils are deficient in plant bioavailable micronutrients due to their slow replenishment from the weathering of soil minerals, soil cultivation for thousands of years and insufficient crop fertilization. Thus, there is a need to correct their deficiencies through use of foliar sprays. Furthermore, foliar sprays on mulberry plants help in disease management, enhance biochemical constituents of mulberry leaf, silkworm growth as well as cocoon parameters. Hence a model needs to be framed for maintaining continuous supply of micronutrients to obtain desired quantity and quality of mulberry leaf for successful silkworm cocoon crop and increasing overall silk productivity.