A 22-year-old man, Mekuria Malah, lives in Mirab (west) Abaya district in Gamo Zone, southern Ethiopia. He completed his secondary education in 2016; but he was not qualified for admission to pursue higher education in any college or university.
As to him, Mekuria had lost hope due to the unemployment in the region, but the YESH (Young Entrepreneurs in Silk and Honey) Project of International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe) gave him a chance to initiate a silkworm farming or sericulture business with other young people in the village.
Standing tall in front of his house, Mekuria was laughing with his friends in the yard. He looks happy and fascinated with a breath-taking green hilly landscape surrounded by a wet and dense forest in the west coast of Lake Abaya.
Another member of his group, Eribka Dugas, 18, completed grade 12 in the last academic year. But she was not fortunate enough to join college or university due to her poor academic result. Now, she has the option to earn a living in her own community.
Eribka joined the Birhan Silkworm Farming Youth Enterprise this year as soon as she saw many youths who changed their lifestyle from idleness to creative self-employment mindset. She believes that growing silkworms as a business is a viable option for her to grow financially and improve her livelihood.
With other members of the enterprise, Mekuria and Eribka are fully engaged in the rearing of silkworms using castor seed leaves and reckon that this full-time employment using the business starter kit that the YESH project provides could enable them 5 to 6 rearing cycles and generate income about 300,000 Birr in cash annually from the sale of silkworm cocoons.
By adding value to cocoons, they could generate more income from the sale of silk yarn, as well as utilizing the various byproducts for vegetable farming, raising chicken or raising fish in freshwater ponds. They feel energetic and empowered by the business opportunity they have in their hands as well as enthusiasm from engaging in this high-value textile industry.
To start up, these young entrepreneurs have saved an initial deposit of Birr 29,000 in their group savings accounts. The local administration provided them with suitable farmland are used for growing castor beans for feeding silkworms and other crops for additional income.
On the side of the farmland, they constructed a rearing shed made from wood and mud, for growing silkworms. The project in partnership with the local agriculture extension office provides them with technical guidance, and further training in financial management.
Mekuria recalls that he was first fascinated by the process how a silk fiber could be produced from an insect which feeds on fresh leaves. With his friends, Mekuria could now produce 30 KGs of cocoons (raw silk) every five to seven weeks, which they sell at a unit price of Birr100 per kg. But if the cocoons are processed and converted into silk yarn using manual spinning machines, the yarn can be sold at Birr 1,500 per kilogram.
Nigatu Degenie, the local extension staff of the project says that experienced experts have given them a four-day training in basic sericulture to enable them acquire basic knowledge and technical skills regarding how to grow silkworms and produce silk fiber.
According to him, the rearing of silkworms is stress-free but requires close care and continuous monitoring of the rearing process. Asked about the entire process in silkworm development, Negatu explained that the small worms are fed and nurtured for thirty-five days until they wrap themselves in their cocoons made of raw silk and gum. Some of the pupa are selected to hatch into seed producing moths. The moths live only four to five days, mate and then lay eggs and die. The life cycle then begins again every forty days.
Esayas Abay, field supervisor at District’s Job Creation Office, says that over 892 youths have been organized into 32 enterprises since 2016 to engage in the production of silk fiber. In this business an individual may earn about Birr 16,000 to Birr 20,000 annually. Those youth enterprises that had started sideline income generating farming activities had generated over Birr 350,000 in just one year.
As to him, this Project has brought hope and motivation for young farmers and entrepreneurs to secure decent self-employment in their home communities. The availability of good market and the provision of technical training are said to be the source of hope in the mind of these young people who never saw sericulture as a lucrative profession. Apart from developing a sense of ownership and engagement at a local level, these youths established partnerships with local administration authorities, international training institutions and rural communities, Negatu explained.
In addition to sericulture, these young entrepreneurs have also engaged in growing vegetables and fruits in their compound as a side business. They sell their vegetables on the local market; and in the long-run, they have now planned to provide their products to other markets as well. “We want to grow our business and be a model for other young people in our area,” added Mekuria.
According to Eribka and Mekuria, they used to rely on the little support from their parents. Their life has changed when he had enrolled in the YESH project about three years ago. They grow vegetables and harvest 3 times a year through the help of irrigation. Besides the profits from selling vegetables, the youths have been improving agricultural practices, such as generating vegetable seeds, and developing the use of a water pump for irrigation.
Since many young people from the same village took advantage of the support from the YESH project, Eribika thought that she could do the same thing to change her life and make a similar move towards prosperity. As to her, there are plenty of opportunities for young people to make a living in their hometowns. Commitment and hard work are the bases for the success in the business as a means to improve one’s livelihood, Eribka commented.
Communication expert at the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe), said that this five-years project has been implemented by icipe in partnership between with the Ministry of Agriculture and Mastercard Foundation since 2016. It focuses on providing trainings for young people in improved beekeeping and silkworm farming techniques so as to equip them with basic knowledge and skills to start a business. In the stated period, the project targeted to reach out for 10,000 young people in commercial beekeeping in the Amhara Region and 2,500 youth in sericulture in the SNNP Region.
As to him, icipe has been contributing to Ethiopia’s development by introducing new agricultural technologies which are useful for generating incomes and improve people’s livelihood. In so doing, the technologies enable smallholder farmers to become principal beneficiaries, and have contributed to the agriculture sector of the nation.
The Ethiopian Herald October 12/2019
BY ZELALEM GIRMA
