The co-breeding model of small silkworm factories in Shengzhou, Zhejiang helps farmers improve efficiency and income

Recently, mulberry planting and silkworm breeding have ushered in the peak season. The expert team of the Factory Sericulture Research Office of the Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences’ Silkworm Tea Institute has visited a silkworm breeding base in Qiandao Lake, Chun’an County many times to provide technical support. “The silkworm babies are growing well, and the ‘small silkworm factory’ model of raising original silkworms is very successful.” Walking in the silkworm room, the experts were delighted.

Chen Sujuan, technical director of Hangzhou Qiandao Lake Silkworm Breeding Co., Ltd., said that not long ago, silkworm farmers in the company’s original silkworm area received 3-year-old silkworms from the Shengzhou Babei Group. Unlike the past, where they directly purchased silkworm seeds and raised silkworms from scratch, These silkworms have already spent their “childhood” in the factories of the Babei Group. After the silkworm farmers take over, they only need to be raised for more than ten days before they can spin cocoons until they are produced for seed production.

In 2019, Babei Group announced that it would overcome the global problem of “factory-based silkworm farming” by allowing silkworms to live in sterile and constant-temperature smart “dormitories” and eat mulberry leaf powder, corn flour, vitamin complexes, etc. The artificial feed and fresh cocoons produced are rolled out on the assembly line all year round, subverting the traditional sericulture model.

At the end of April this year, Babei Group and the Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences officially signed a cooperation agreement to jointly explore and promote the “small silkworm factory” based on the characteristics of factory-based sericulture and traditional sericulture industry, focusing on scientific and technological research, technical cooperation and demonstration applications. “Model to enhance the economic benefits of the traditional sericulture industry and increase the income of sericulture farmers.

“The ‘Golden Silkworm’, especially the ‘little silkworm’ period from silkworm eggs to about 3 years old, must not only strictly control the environment, temperature, nutrition, but also strictly prevent epidemic diseases.” Babei Group specializes in factory-based breeding He Ruimin, executive deputy general manager of Shengzhou Mosang Hi-Tech Co., Ltd., which is involved in the silkworm business, said that she has witnessed many silkworm babies being “annihilated” due to epidemics and is well aware of the hardships of raising silkworms: “Now we have launched the ‘small silkworm factory’ model. Relying on factory-based sericulture technology, we can help sericulture farmers improve efficiency, reduce costs, and actually increase their income. At the same time, it can also protect the company’s own needs for sericulture.”

“It used to take about a month to raise a batch of silkworms, and a lot of energy had to be invested in taking care of them. Now I take over midway, and the cost of raising them has been greatly reduced.” A silkworm farmer in Chun’an said that what he got from the “Little Silkworm Factory” was original Silkworms are mainly used for breeding silkworms. They have a high “value”. Moreover, the cycle of raising silkworms has been shortened, and several more batches can be raised every year. At present, three batches of silkworm breeding under the “Small Silkworm Factory” model have been carried out, and the average income of each beneficiary silkworm farmer has increased by 25,000 yuan. Compared with the traditional sericulture model, the income of each batch has doubled.

When the seed production is completed, Babei Group will participate in the purchase of silkworm seeds and the leftover mulberry leaves from silkworm farmers to make new artificial feed to start the next round of breeding. The silkworm feces produced during the factory breeding process of the Babei Group will be made into organic fertilizer to help farmers plant mulberry trees, forming a greenenvironmentalindustrial “closed loop”.

Cao Jinru, director of the Hangzhou Comprehensive Experiment Station of the National Sericulture Industry Technology System and leader of the factory-based sericulture subject of the Silkworm Tea Institute of the Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said that the “small silkworm factory” model can not only free up more breeding space for enterprises, but also save provinces. Breeding nearby can also save silkworm seeds from traveling long distances, reduce the risk of damage to silkworm seeds during transportation, and save transportation costs.

AAA

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