China's sericulture industry transformation urgently needs to break free from the "single thread"
For the sustainable development of the sericulture industry, it is urgent to achieve a leap from the traditional single-industry development model of “one cocoon” and “one thread” to a diversified development model of “one mulberry field” and “a series of resources” through comprehensive resource utilization. This is what the reporter recently learned from the national on-site meeting on comprehensive utilization of sericulture resources held in Yizhou, Guangxi.
China has a history of more than 5,000 years of mulberry cultivation and silkworm rearing, was historically the starting point of the “Silk Road,” and is still the world's largest sericulture producer and silk exporter. In 2014, more than 8 million households in over 700 counties across the country cultivated mulberry and raised silkworms, and the production of cocoons and silk each accounted for about 80% of the world's total output, but constrained by factors in understanding, technology and industry, China's comprehensive utilization rate of sericulture resources is less than 20%, which not only restricts the improvement of the comparative benefits of mulberry cultivation and silkworm rearing, but also makes the development of the sericulture industry face severe challenges.
Comprehensive utilization of sericulture resources is, beyond the traditional industrial development model of “mulberry—silkworm—cocoon—silk—silk fabric—finished product,” the expansion of sericulture production from mulberry cultivation and silkworm rearing to production and business activities including three-dimensional cultivation and rearing in mulberry fields, cultural tourism, and multi-purpose utilization of mulberry leaves, mulberry branches, mulberry fruits, silkworm excrement and silkworm rearing rooms, with the purpose of comprehensively developing the material, biological and cultural resources of each link in the sericulture industry chain through modern science and technology and the concept of a circular low-carbon economy.
In terms of making the best use of everything and increasing farmers' income, the comprehensive utilization of sericulture resources has great potential. Taking the cultivation and rearing model in the Panzhihua area of Sichuan as an example, silkworm farmers normally earn 3,000 yuan per mu per year from raising silkworms, and by selling fresh mulberry fruits when not raising silkworms, processing mulberry leaf tea and mulberry leaf vegetables, etc., they can increase their income by 5,100 yuan. According to statistics, in 2014 the output value of diversified utilization of sericulture resources nationwide was nearly 15.5 billion yuan, an increase of 59% compared with 5.7 billion yuan in 2010.
In order to speed up the comprehensive utilization of sericulture and promote the transformation and development of the industry, the meeting required sericulture management departments at all levels to formulate development plans for the comprehensive utilization of sericulture resources in light of local realities, and guide the various elements of the sericulture industry to further concentrate in advantageous production areas; intensify the research and development of practical technologies, promptly extend scientific research achievements to production, and strengthen technical guidance to strive to improve the level of production; guide new agricultural business entities such as agricultural professional cooperatives, family farms and leading enterprises to participate in the development of comprehensive utilization of sericulture resources, advance large-scale operation and standardized production, and drive farmers to become better off; while developing the comprehensive utilization of sericulture resources, strengthen the protection of silkworm variety resources, variety breeding, variety approval and fine variety propagation, standardize the order of silkworm egg production and operation, and promote the sustained and stable development of sericulture production nationwide.
