In 1992, a tripartite project titled “Sericulture as a Rural Agro-Based Industry in the Philippines”, funded by the United Nations Development Program–Food and Agriculture Organization (UNDP-FAO) was implemented in Region I and the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR). The Philippine Textile Research Institute (PTRI) was one of the project’s implementers. Benguet was specifically chosen as the site in the CAR owing to the existing project of the PTRI. Aside from being the “pioneer and cradle” of sericulture, Benguet offers a favorable agro-climate for the successful growing of silkworms for cocoon production.
The UNDP-FAO project’s main objective was to establish sericulture communities composed of farmers willing and interested in undertaking cocoon production as a source of income, either full-time or part-time. In the process of selecting sites for the Municipal Sericulture Center (MSC), the town of Sablan was identified. Farmers and handicraft makers in the municipality were invited to undergo intensive training on mulberry cultivation and silkworm rearing for cocoon production.
Mrs. Agustina Ambes, a resident of Monglo, Sablan, was one of the many recipient farmer-cooperators of the sericulture training. This became the start of the family’s continuing cocoon production. Mrs. Ambes weathered the ups and downs of sericulture and to date, she is the only existing and active farmer-cooperator of the former foreign-assisted project in Benguet. Her experiences in having sericulture as livelihood is a modest example of a micro-scale enterprise that can augment other sources of income and in time turn to be a major income source.