Major Contributing District - Kolar "The Milk & Silk City of Karnataka".

Older than Bangalore:  Kolar dates back to the second century when Bangalore was not formed,  earlier The Western Gangas made Kolar their capital, ruling Mysore, Coimbatore, Salem and Travancore. Though Bangalore grew with its drastic growth of development and was well known in the world, Kolar remained to be backbone to Bangalore City by creating a regular supply chain of its agricultural products such as vegetables, fruits and most importantly milk and silk to the city.

Milk: Kolar remains to be one among the highest milk producing district in the state which recently surpassed Denmark- a European Country, in production of milk. Kolar-Chikkaballapura District Co-Operative Milk Producers Union Limited (KOMUL) was established in the year 1987 is the Second Highest Milk producer in the state and First union to get installed with “Bulk Milk Coolers & Community Milking Machines” at society level in the state of Karnataka to get the quality milk required for UHT milk packed at Kolar Dairy under the brand name of nandini. Union has full pledged dairy at Kolar with an installed capacity of 2.0 LLPD (Lakh Liters Per. Day), and three chilling centers at Chinthamani, Sadli, & Gowribidnur with 1.0 LLPD.

KOMUL started with an authorized share capital of ₹.8.56 Lakhs which was funded by Bangalore District Milk Union, later during the audit process in the year 2015-16 it was found that the authorized share capital of the union had increased to ₹.3408.90 Lakhs.

Kolar and its Silk Production:  Silk is a fabric comprised of natural protein fiber, which is a protein that certain types of insect larvae secrete to make cocoons. While other insects also produce silk-like substances, most of the world’s silk is derived from Bombyx mori larvae, which are worms that only live on mulberry trees. Mulberry is an economically important tree, being cultivated for its leaves, to rear silkworms it turned out to be a boon to the district at early times when it was introduced as the district was running short of water. Kolar stands first in the production of mulberry (sericulture) in Karnataka. Farmers of Kolar have adopted the method of sericulture as a major occupation for their livelihood contributing huge production of silk from the district.

The very recent measure taken by the Government of India by making the country self-reliant and reduce import from different countries among which China from whom Silk was imported was stopped, resulting demand of SILK increased drastically and the district’s silk production would develop much more than what was estimated earlier.

Juicy Tomatoes of Kolar: With its huge production of Tomatoes which are exported to other states and countries contributed the district to create Asia’s Second Largest Market for Tomatoes (APMC Yard / CMR Tomato Market) the potential or demand of these tomatoes in Asian market is believed to be the liquid content found within tomato are higher when compared with other districts & states. Land usage with respect to tomato cultivation is abundant in the locality as the analysis of land shows more contribution towards tomato as 8000 hectares of land are used for tomato cultivation out of 40768 hectares of agriculture land in the district. As per the data collected from the agricultural department of Karnataka State, The Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) yard of Kolar district records tomato transactions worth ₹.350 crore per annum. About 200 truckloads of tomatoes are sent to neighboring states such as Kerala, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra every day.

Mango Capital:  The National Fruit of India, Kolar stands first district contributing the highest mango produces in Karnataka state with 40768 Hectares of land cultivating mangoes. Among which Srinivaspura of Kolar district contributes to mango cultivation at 22300 hectares of land which in terms produces more than 63species of mangoes and has been named as “The Land of World Famous Mangoes”. The Mangoes grown in the region are been exported to different states mainly towards the northern part of India. Further the exports are forwarded to different countries to name a few United States of America, United Kingdom and United Arab Emirates.

Kolar District has definitely proved itself by attracting further more industrialization and is towards a steady growth in development.