SILK DEVELOPMENT PROJECT

1. Rationale

Sericulture is a booming industry. It is the major supplier of good quality cocoons. In fact, the Cordilleran region has long been engaged in silk production, with its favorable agro-climatic condition and labor endowment. Sericulture has good potential for raising living standards, among the rural poor, particularly women, through household-based production.

It is because of this vision that this project has been designed as a

pilot operation to facilitate the introduction of improved technology on sericulture. It is anticipated that the project will help to establish Kalinga sericulture into a technically up-to-date, economically and financially viable sector.

It is also envisioned that silk research, training and extension would slowly be handled by autonomous entity controlled by the stakeholders when the project is ready to be packaged and transferred to recipient barangays. The profits from sericulture activities will help to transform the lives of many poor rural families.

Fiber Development Authority (FIDA) reported that 70 percent of the 1,500 kilos of cocoons produced in Regions 1 and Cordillera last year came from Benguet. If a sericulture industry would be established in Kalinga, there is no doubt that the province can duplicate, if not surpass, that of Benguet.

This is the vision towards which the initial project is aimed.

2. Objectives
1. To establish a sericulture research and development in KASC, targeted to be a resource center, while utilizing vermin-compost as major ingredient in the growing of mulberry trees;
2. To package and disseminate the technology to cooperating recipients in the community;
3. To establish an income-generating-project for KASC

3. Expected Output

1. A Kalinga sericulture center located within and maintained by KASC;
2. Technology transfer by way of campaigns to popularize the technology – in the form of training activities and IEC undertakings;
3. A financially viable project for KASC

4. Potential Impact

The industry will have far-reaching impact on KASC as it will establish itself as a sericulture center. Research and development activities related to sericulture help in the build-up of knowledge pertaining to the technology.

As the project will directly open up a new industry for the province, farmer-rearers shall benefit a great deal in economic terms as well as infuse in them the use of organic inputs like vermi-compost.

5. Milestones

Under this proposal, KASC will prepare the plans and programs of the silk processing center and send for training a number of technicians on mulberry propagation and silkworm rearing.

Laborers will be trained to undertake cocoon processing into raw silk, coordinate the distribution of silkworms to farmer-rearers in cooperation with the Philippine Textile Research Institute (PTRI) and other institutions undertaking silkworm rearing and egg production, and also push for marketing the raw silk.