On a spring day, the 10,000-acre mulberry sea in Shiyang Town, Dayao County, Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, is rolling. Silkworm farmers are grabbing mulberry leaves, cutting mulberry strips, and weeding...Shiyang Town has a long history of sericulture. , bre

Yin Xin

In the spring, the 10,000-acre mulberry sea in Shiyang Town, Dayao County, Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, is rolling. Silkworm farmers are grabbing mulberry leaves, cutting mulberry strips, and weeding...

Shiyang Town has a long history With a long history of sericulture breeding and breeding, it is an important high-quality silkworm cocoon base in Yunnan Province. In recent years, the new development model of "grassroots party organizations + companies + bases + farmers" has promoted the vigorous development of the sericulture industry in Shiyang Town, and many villagers have tasted the sweetness of increasing income and becoming rich.

The 10,000-acre mulberry garden of Dazhong Village Committee, Shiyang Town, Dayao County. Photo courtesy of Shiyang Town Agricultural and Rural Service Center

Zhao Fang, a villager from the Moshijiang Group of Liushutang Village Committee, Shiyang Town, had a busy day loading several large baskets of mulberry leaves picked onto a three-wheeled motorcycle. Zhao Fang has been growing mulberry and raising silkworms for more than 30 years, and has 8 acres of mulberry garden. Currently, the spring silkworms have reached the third stage, and the whole family is busy.

"All three old houses in the family have been vacated as silkworm rooms. In order to facilitate the transportation of mulberry leaves, the dirt road of more than 200 meters in front of the house has been renovated and widened." Zhao Fang carefully calculated the "input-output ratio" of mulberry farming and silkworm rearing over the years. "The gross income from sericulture last year was more than 80,000 yuan. The market prospects are good this year. I have started cultivating silkworm seeds again, hoping to expand the scale of breeding next year."

In Liushutang Village, most farmers rely on sericulture as their main source of income. "This year's drought is particularly severe and has a greater impact on mulberry leaves. Some retail farmers with few mulberry fields are facing a shortage of mulberry leaves," said Zhang Gao, deputy secretary of the Liushutang Village Party Branch. To this end, sericulture technicians from the town's agricultural and rural service center went to households to provide technical guidance and help sericulture farmers solve problems such as water diversion, cultivating management, and pest control. At present, Liushutang Village Committee has planted mulberry trees on an area of ​​2,480 acres, with an annual production capacity of 120 tons of silkworm rolls, with an output value of nearly 7 million yuan.

The 10,000-acre mulberry garden of Dazhong Village Committee, Shiyang Town, Dayao County. Photo courtesy of Shiyang Town Agricultural and Rural Service Center

Shiyang Town has invested 5.02 million yuan in the construction of a sericulture standardized demonstration park, a small silkworm co-cultivation center, and a mulberry storage room. The construction was built with Shiyang Nanhe area as the core, Xihe area, Qinghe, and Guo Home is a complementary sericulture industry economic zone. The town party committee and government study and issue opinions on sericulture production every year, implement support and subsidy funds from silkworm seed improvement to the purchase of high-quality cocoons, and actively respond to various problems encountered in the development of the sericulture industry.

"Including the implementation of four key measures for mulberry management and three core technologies of sericulture, and the promotion of labor-saving sericulture equipment and green prevention and control technology in mulberry gardens." Zhao Zhihong, deputy secretary of the Party Committee and Mayor of Shiyang Town, said that currently, Baishi Valley, Liushutang and Dazhong Village have implemented a 2,400-acre sericulture intensive green prevention and control demonstration project, and the mulberry garden green ecological prevention and control demonstration is at the forefront of the province.

In 2023, the mulberry orchard planting area in Shiyang Town will be 13,700 acres, with 1,685 sericulture farmers, producing 1,197.5 tons of cocoons, and the annual sericulture output value will reach 81.6762 million yuan. In July 2023, Shiyang Town was recognized by the Yunnan Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs as a "one village, one product" professional town for sericulture in the province, and 4 village committees were recognized as "one village, one product" professional sericulture villages.

Villagers drive three-wheeled motorcycles to transport picked mulberry leaves. People's Daily Photo by Yin Xin

Shiyang Town is just a microcosm of the development and growth of the sericulture industry in Dayao County. In recent years, Dayao County has regarded the sericulture industry as an important starting point for rural revitalization. It has built 89,000 acres of high-standard mulberry gardens. The average income of sericulture farmers is more than 22,000 yuan. Sericulture has become one of Dayao County's characteristic industries. For the

industry to develop, it is not enough to just “plant it”, but also to “sell it”. In the acquisition process, Dayao County has established a long-term "production, supply and marketing" cooperative relationship with Chuxiong Dayang Cocoon Silk Company to integrate the "small scattered" market and keep the price of silkworm cocoons stable; in the processing process, Zhejiang enterprises are introduced to process silk fabrics, forming a "mulberry" , silkworms, cocoons, silk" a complete one-stop industrial chain.

Workers are busy in the workshop of Yunnan Colorful Silk Co., Ltd. People's Daily Online Photo by Yin Xin

Yunnan Colorful Silk Co., Ltd. is the only deep processing enterprise of mulberry silk fabrics in Chuxiong Prefecture. The company has an annual output of 2 million meters of mulberry silk fabrics. Its products are mainly sold to Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Suzhou and other places.

“Dayao County has a good foundation for developing the sericulture industry, and the silk quality is also high. The industrial chain needs to supplement the deep processing links."Zhu Yekun, chairman of Yunnan Qicai Silk Co., Ltd., said that the company needs 1,500 tons of fresh cocoon raw materials for agricultural and sideline products every year. It plays a leading role as a leading enterprise and effectively promotes the development of the sericulture industry in Dayao and Chuxiong Prefecture and increases the income of the masses.

Workers are operating Shuttleless rapier loom. Photo by Yin Xin of People's Daily Online

Today, Dayao County is actively exploring new ideas for the development of the sericulture industry, developing mulberry bud tea, dried mulberries, mulberry wine and other special tourism products, "touring mulberry gardens, picking mulberry fruits, tasting The agricultural and mulberry tourism experience project of "mulberry banquet and drinking mulberry wine" has become a powerful starting point for the new model of integrated development of agriculture and tourism, and the comprehensive income of the sericulture industry has steadily increased.