SAMPLES. A bunch of silkworm larvae feeding on mulberry leaves is on show on the Department of Science and Technology – Philippine Textile Research Institute in Villanueva, Misamis Oriental on this undated photograph. On Friday (March 11, 2022), DOST officers visited the headquarters and opened the filature facility for silkworm textile manufacturing. (PNA photograph by Nef Luczon)
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – In 2020, Alfredo Angcop used a hectare of his farmland to enterprise into planting mulberries in Claveria, Misamis Oriental.
Months later, he began rearing silkworms.
In his city, there are 20 of them who’re engaged in sericulture, but it surely was not simple for starters like him.
“You need to plant mulberries and grow them for at least seven months, after that you get those (silkworm) larvae,” he stated within the vernacular throughout an interview Friday.
Angcop stated feeding the silkworm larvae want consideration and shut monitoring, a routine he needed to regulate to for months, not like the opposite crops that he was used to.
“Mulberries are organic. They are not sprayed with pesticides, otherwise, it will affect the silkworm. In feeding them, there are required schedules, or else they will not produce thick cocoons,” he stated.
The mulberry farms are essential because the leaves are crucial for the silkworms to feed on. They would later create a cocoon that’s the supply of silk supplies.
For three harvest cycles, Angcop was in a position to promote to the Department of Science and Technology – Philippine Textile Research Institute (DOST-PTRI) in Villanueva, Misamis Oriental as he and the company had a contract underneath this system “Seda Pilipinas.”
Alfredo Angcop (third from left) listens to the speeches of visitor officers on the headquarters of the Department of Science and Technology – Philippine Textile Research Institute in Villanueva, Misamis Oriental on Friday (March 11, 2022). (PNA photograph by Nef Luczon)
Silkworm processing
Science and Technology Secretary Fortunato dela Peña (left) will get a briefing on how the reeling machine for silkworm cocoons work within the filature facility in Villanueva, Misamis Oriental on Friday (March 11, 2022). (PNA photograph by Nef Luczon)
Seda Pilipinas is DOST-PTRI’s Philippine Silk Road Program, which goals to assist farmers and companion industries within the textile sector by way of science and know-how coaching and intervention.
On Friday, DOST Secretary Fortunato de la Peña led the formal opening of its filature facility, which homes 4 spinning and reeling machines from India, amounting to PHP10 million.
The machines had been purchased final 12 months and with the acquisition, farmers can course of the silkworm cocoons into silk. Prior to the arrival of the machines, suppliers needed to convey the cocoons to the Visayas for processing.
“We are aiming to upscale or increase the volumes, like this sericulture that produces silk. We are looking forward that someday, we can find more areas that can be planted (with mulberries) and expansion of sericulture production areas,” de la Peña stated.
He stated there was an elevated demand for silk and whereas there are cheaper sources in different international locations, he stated the silk industry within the Northern Mindanao area and the nation is important for farmers to search out extra revenue.
Apollo Pacamalan, head of Misamis Oriental Provincial Agriculture Office, stated the provincial authorities has dedicated to pouring in an extra PHP2 million price of help for sericulture farmers with a 50-hectare mulberry farm that may support about 200.
Women’s livelihood, new partnerships
In a housing neighborhood in Barangay Balubal right here, which is managed by the town authorities’s Urban Development Division, 40 girls have been engaged in sericulture since 2018.
Kris Buntag, the division’s mission coordinator, stated 12 of them have undergone coaching by way of PTRI and different authorities businesses.
“These farmers are mostly mothers. Through mentoring and monitoring, we also remind them that these free programs from the government should be taken care of and they should use the resources responsibly and efficiently,” she stated throughout this system.
Buntag stated that extra members of the neighborhood will probably be educated quickly by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.
Eventually, the onerous work of the ladies neighborhood in Balubal, in addition to Angcop’s and his colleagues in Claveria, will repay after PTRI discovered a non-public sector companion, Bayo Foundation.
The partnership between PTRI and Bayo Foundation was brokered earlier this 12 months, with the latter dedicated to buy silk from sericulture farmers in Northern Mindanao.
Checking on the silk threads constituted of silkworm cocoons are (from left) Apollo Pacamalan, head of Misamis Oriental Provincial Agriculture Office; Alfonso Alamban, DOST Region 10 Director; DOST-PTRI Director Celia Elumba; and DOST Secretary Fortunato dela Peña (PNA photograph by Nef Luczon)
Tourism potential
In a January interview, Department of Tourism Region 10 (DOT-10) Director, May Unchuan, stated the Northern Mindanao area has a much bigger probability of maximizing Mindanao-based textile merchandise, particularly within the style industry right here and overseas.
“The machine may be costly but with the help of the Department of Agriculture and local government units, we can expand the mulberry farms and silkworm population, and also train the farmers,” she stated.
Mimi Pimentel, a designer and advocate of Mindanao-based textiles, as soon as stated that if farmers right here can produce massive volumes of silk, she will be able to proceed to advertise the material overseas.
“We had a series of fashion shows abroad and we were promoting the Mindanao silk, so it clicked with international buyers, which they usually buy in bulk,” she stated.
Vincent Salon, Science Research Assistant at PTRI-Villanueva, stated in the mean time, there are 84 silkworm variants saved of their chilly storage facility with 16 thought-about excessive-breed. (PNA)
