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Sericulture Model Farms
The middle income and medium-scale
farmer-entrepreneurs who own large tracts of idle lands has become the
primary targets in the Philippine Textile Research Institute's (PTRI)
Silk Industry Development Program.
As conceptualized by Dr. Carlos C. Tomboc, Director of PTRI, an agency of the
Department
of Science and Technology (DOST), the landed middle class
entrepreneur becomes a sericulture model farmer who establishes a
Sericulture Model Farm at his own expense over the land that he
owns. The small and marginal sericulture farmers within the
vicinity will be trained and become part of the model farm.
Through a Memorandum of Agreement
together with the Model farmer, the PTRI, Fibers Industry and
Development Authority (FIDA), DOST Regional Offices and the local
government units will provide the technical requirements of the model
farm.
To date, there are three (3)
Sericulture Model Farms identified in Mindanao; they are based in
Bukidnon, Misamis Oriental and Davao City. Two more will be
established through the signing of Memoranda of Agreement: Pagadian City
and Zamboanga City. Similar farms were also established in Tanay,
Rizal and Hinigaran, Negros Occidental. Each of these model
farmers has at least five hectares of land planted with mulberry (sole
food of silkworm). Also, ten (10) individual farmers in the
Cordillera Administrative Region and 14 in Mindanao and some in Iloilo
and Negros Occidental are actively engaged in cocoon production.
Total areas planted with mulberry in Luzon are 135.6 ha., Visayas is
114.4 ha. and in Mindanao 133.1 ha.
A five-hectare mulberry farm can
support the production of 9,600 kilograms of fresh cocoons per year or
3,849 kgs. of dried cocoons/year, or 1,200 kgs. of raw silk/year, which
could produce 24,000 yards of silk fabric and give employment to 114
skilled laborers and 400 handloom weavers. At ideal conditions,
doing eight (8) rearings in a year an average sericulture family of five
can earn a gross income of Php 192,000/hectare/year from its cocoon
produced.
Silk comes from the cocoons
produced by the silkworms (Bombyx mori). Cocoon production
involves the rearing of silkworm up to cocoon spinning, harvesting and
drying.
Silkworm rearing for cocoon
production deals mainly on the larval stage of the silkworm, the only
stage in the life of the insect wherein it (silkworm) takes food, i.e.
mulberry leaves (Morus alba) for its growth. The silkworm requires
proper feeding at regular intervals for 24-26 days from hatching until
they are ready to spin their cocoon. Once the worms mature, they
are gathered and mounted on cocooning frames where they spin their
cocoons. A week after mounting, the cocoons are harvested.
The PTRI has in its germplasm bank
(repository) 86 silkworm breeds with 31 purelines being
maintained. Eight hybrids are being field-tested and four other
breeds have been used for commercial cocoon production. The rest
are undergoing different levels of breeding processes. It used to
be that the Philippines imported silkworm eggs from Japan, China or
Korea. Now, we are self-sufficient in our egg supply mainly from
PTRI.
Once the cocoons are harvested,
they are dried and then undergo reeling. Reeling is the process of
unwinding the cocoon filaments from cooked cocoons using reeling
machine. Cocoon reeling or filature is the industrial phase of
sericulture, which involves the production of raw silk yarns for
purposes of weaving jusi. When degummed, they can be blended with
other natural fibers like pineapple, abaca and banana to produce exotic
fabrics inherently Filipino.
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