Barring posters of one or two candidates, nearly 25km road from Dhemaji town towards Ghaimora gaon is devoid of any political activity ahead of the Assembly polls.

A bridge washed away by the Koha years ago at Kaitong village, flood-damaged roads left untouched for years and some hurriedly black-topped stretches here and there for cars for election campaigning welcome visitors to the villages under Dhemaji Assembly constituency.

Politics has not touched 55-year-old muga farmer Dondeswar Gogoi and his family at Dhenukona gaon, 3km from Ghaimora.

A bow and arrow in his hands, Gogoi runs his four- bigha muga farm and chases the birds attacking the Antheraea assamensis, the multivoltine silkworm from which muga, Assam's famous golden-yellow silk, is produced.

Gogoi and about 100 other families under Dhakuakhana subdivision in Upper Assam's Lakhimpur district is growing silkworm in som trees spread across 300-bigha farm and producing muga for generations together.

From chasing birds to pruning the trees, picking and drying the cocoon to weaving the attractive mekhela sadors in handlooms, men and women in these villages have been following traditional methods.

"We know elections will make no difference. None (politicians or government help) have come to us ever," Gogoi told The Telegraph, sitting near his tent inside the farm. His 26-year-old nephew Brojen, a graduate, standing next to him, too was cynical about politicians and the government.

"Elections come and go but we have got nothing. Changing weather has impacted muga production and we need technical help to counter the threat. The silkworm is very sensitive to scent and the chemicals and insecticides used in the tea garden is killing the silkworm. This has impacted our production. Only the government can ask the (powerful) tea gardens to stop chemical use and go organic," said Brojen, pointing to the neighbouring tea garden.

Gogoi's family cultivates nearly one lakh muga cocoon every year (two seasons), which fetches between Rs 2 and Rs 3 lakh.

The cocoons are boiled, dried in sunlight or over fire and the golden muga yarns are brought out with handmade bamboo tools before the women weave the textiles in handlooms.

New technology or knowledge, which can boost their earnings, has not reached them yet.

Dhakuakhana is a hub of silkworm cultivation and muga production. The farmers, who face floods and erosion almost every year, depend on muga cultivation for livelihood. But most complain that it is difficult to survive climate challenges such as increase in temperature without new scientific knowledge for muga cultivation.

"A few years ago, some senior government officials came to our farm and promised many things. But nothing happened thereafter," said another farmer.

Jitul Saikia, an entomologist (who studies insects) at Ghaimora, who accompanied this correspondent to the Dhenukona gaon muga farm, said muga production could prosper if the traditional farmers were provided quality seeds and scientifically-developed new hose plants.

"The new hose plants of muga, which are lower in height, will address their challenge to protect the silkworm from the birds. A recent study by us revealed that average leaf yield of muga farms here is only 4.5 metric tonnes per hectare while that of the hose plants is 8.5 metric tonne per hectare. Hence, our government should provide such hose plants and train the farmers here," Saikia, who is also the director of Wild Silk Society, an NGO working for muga farmers since 2004, said.

"A report prepared by William Robinson in 1886 found cultivation of 1 lakh muga cocoon in one hectare per year in Assam but our state government's report in 2014 revealed that it had come down to 56,000MT. This shows how we have failed to address the new challenges and increase muga cultivation, for which Assam is famous worldwide," Saikia said. Muga silk received GI (geographic indications) in 2007 and a logo in 2014.

Assam produced 158 tonnes of muga during 2014-15.

Saikia, who developed a model of sustainable muga-agriculture-horticulture livelihood cycle said politicians contesting elections must study the potential of muga cultivation for making the new technical knowledge available to the farmers and support the alternative livelihood to the villagers affected by floods and erosion every year.

The villages fall under Dhemaji Assembly constituency but is situated in Lakhimpur district (Dhakuakhana subdivision).

"Our MLA and the Lakhimpur district administration pass the buck when we go to them for construction of a bridge at Koitong, road repair or the issues of the muga farmers," said Ananta Gogoi, another muga farmer, aged about 70 years.