Chennai Mar 30 PTI Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Wednesday presented cash awards to the tune of Rs 675 lakh to nine people including three farmers in recognition of their contribution to sericulture in the State The awards were given away on behalf of the Sericulture Department at the Secretariat here The first prize for the best sericulture farmer carries a purse of Rs one lakh Rs 75000 and Rs 50000 to the second and third farmers Accordingly P Chinnan of Theni district K Bhobalakrishnan of Tirupur and C Kamalam of Namakkal district received the awards Similarly the best automatic silk reelers awards were given to R Perumal Rs one lakh of Tirupur C Sekhar Rs 75000 of Krishnagiri district and J Ramashankar Rs 50000 of Tirupur district Three best multi-end silk reelers awards were presented to M Jayavel Rs one lakh and J Vedavalli Rs 75000 of Dharmapuri district and A Venkatachalapathy Rs 50000 of Krishnagiri district Minister for Micro Small and Medium Enterprises T M Anbarasan Chief Secretary V Irai Anbu Handlooms Handicrafts Textiles Khadi Department Principal Secretary Dharmendra Pratap Yadav and Director of Sericulture K Santhi were among those present on the occasion Tamil Nadu produced 1834 metric tonnes of raw silk during 2020-2021 and stands third in the country in the production of bivoltine raw silk by producing 1754 metric tonnes among mulberry silk- producing States PTI JSP NVG NVG