In 2020, Alfredo Angcop used a hectare of his farmland to venture into planting mulberries in Claveria, Misamis Oriental.
Months later, he started rearing silkworms.
In his town, there are 20 of them who are engaged in sericulture, but it was not easy for starters like him.
“You need to plant mulberries and grow them for at least seven months, after that you get those (silkworm) larvae,” he said in the vernacular during an interview Friday.
Angcop said feeding the silkworm larvae need attention and close monitoring, a routine he had to adjust to for months, not like the other crops that he was used to.
“Mulberries are organic. They are not sprayed with pesticides, otherwise, it will affect the silkworm. In feeding them, there are required schedules, or else they will not produce thick cocoons,” he said.
The mulberry farms are important as the leaves are necessary for the silkworms to feed on. They would later create a cocoon that is the source of silk materials.
For three harvest cycles, Angcop was able to sell to the Department of Science and Technology – Philippine Textile Research Institute (DOST-PTRI) in Villanueva, Misamis Oriental as he and the agency had a contract under the program “Seda Pilipinas.”
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Source: Philippines News Agency
