NANNING, May 25 (Xinhua) -- The silkworm industry, which has existed in China for thousands of years, now has a role to play in helping with the country's poverty alleviation.
Meng Lan'ou, a farmer of Hanbang village near the China-Vietnam border in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, woke up early to pick fresh mulberry leaves to feed her silkworms in cocoonery.
In less than two weeks, Meng will sell some 100 kilograms of silkworm cocoons that would make over 4,000 yuan (about 563 U.S. dollars).
With a warm and relatively humid climate, Guangxi is ideal for developing the silkworm industry which offers jobs to many poor villagers.
Meng, who used to leave home to do odd jobs to provide for her family, started to raise silkworms in 2018 as the local government provided her a low-rent cocoonery and subsidy for growing mulberry trees.
Now, Meng's family can earn some 30,000 yuan a year by feeding silkworms with leaves from their mulberry field of 10 mu (about 0.7 hectares).
"I'm satisfied with the earnings, and I can take care of my parents and children while raising silkworms at home," said Meng.
Many villagers have tasted the sweetness of raising silkworms like Meng. Over 450 villagers in Hanbang village joined the silkworm industry and planted 71 hectares of mulberry trees.
"Thanks to the short breeding cycle and relatively low technical requirements, I could earn over 10,000 yuan a year by raising silkworms, and I want to expand the mulberry's planting scale in the future," said Huang Da'en.
The 59-year-old Huang caught uremia in 2014 and had led a poor life ever since. In 2018, he began to grow mulberry trees and raise silkworms, receiving a subsidy of over 4,000 yuan.
Wang Bin, an official in Hanbang village, said the local government often invites technicians to give villagers technique guidance.
"I attend training whenever I have a chance, and the skills I learnt there indeed helped me a lot," said Huang, adding the first batch of silkworms he raised this year was saved as the technicians guided him to warm cocooneries with charcoal fire against cold weather.
As of April 30, the 12 cities in the autonomous region had over 206,406 hectares of mulberry fields, according to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Enditem
