Of the multifarious production types exercised in Ethiopia, sericulture has been cited as a promising one. Cognizant of the fact that the agricultural sector has incorporated a range of sectors, The Ethiopian Herald had a stay with Semir Abamecha, an agro-economist who graduated from Jimma University, to have a piece of information about the cultivation of silk work, sericulture.
He said, “As silk has played an important role in the social and religious life of Ethiopia from the earliest days of the kingdom of Axum, sericulture has been, as an agro-based industry, practiced in the country despite its minimal intensity. It is the process of obtaining the natural silk fiber through silkworm rearing, which can be experienced in varying agro-climatic conditions and is suited to different production systems.”
According to Semir, sericulture industry has enormous advantages for sustainable development of any country. The industrial and commercial uses of silk contributed to the silkworm promotion all over the world especially in developing nations like ours.
In simple terms, he elucidated, sericulture is the rearing of silkworm, which is practiced in many countries around the globe, and silkworm is the primary productive insect species for the sericulture industry. Silk has a strong attraction to the people of Ethiopia, dating from the ancient period of the country’s civilization. It has various advantages, among others: socio-economic, religious and ecological values creating job opportunity, alternative source of income, environmental conservation, and technology adoption.
Semir further stated that Ethiopia has a high potential for silk production due to the existence of suitable conditions such as bimodal rainfall patterns, ambient temperatures, different vegetation and other agro-ecological factors. However, silk production in the country is still limited by several factors, such as institutional aspects, farmer-related problems, infrastructure influences, and natural factors. Therefore, the government and other stakeholders should work on solving these problems and attach due emphasis to sericulture to help the nation gain what it deserves out of the subsector.
“True, sericulture is an agro-based industry. It is the process of obtaining the natural silk fiber through silkworm rearing, which can be practiced in varying agro-climatic conditions, and the industry has enormous advantages for sustainable development. Today, the top five silk producing countries in the world are China, India, Japan, Brazil and Thailand.
In Africa, silk has been used for textiles for about thousands of years and sericulture has a history of more than 30 years in East Africa. The potential of the African indigenous silk moth species for wild silk production has been well documented in Nigeria, Uganda and Kenya and other central and southern African countries,” Semir added.
As to him, silkworm is the common name for the silk-producing larva of any of several species of mothswhich is used by the cottage and small scale industry as well as big silk industry. Silk is said the queen of fibers because it is a smooth, shining, very soft, lustrous, fabulous, strong and durable and unique natural protein fiber produced by silkworms.
He said sericulture, silk worm farming, is an agro-based industry that involves all the processes starting from mulberry cultivation to silk dying and weaving of sericulture activities. In short, sericulture is an art of rearing silkworms for silk production, and its main product is the natural silk fiber.
As studied well so far, silk is a natural protein fiber and is very soft, lustrous, smooth, strong, and durable than any natural or artificial fiber. Developing countries like ours have relied on silk production as an important tool for economic development, for employment generation especially in rural sector and also as a means to earn foreign exchange though its grade is highly minimal in Ethiopia.
He said, “In Ethiopia, agriculture is the cornerstone of the development policy. Since the country is the second highly populated country of African continent, it has faced problems born to unemployment, underemployment and poverty, especially in rural areas due to lack of farmland and high rate population growth. Henceforth, for these serious problems another part of agricultural sector such as sericulture industry becomes an important pre-requisite as an alternative source of income, efficient and effective income and employment generating activity and poverty reduction.”
He said in view of its potentiality for job oriented or self-employment positions at various levels can be suitable to college or university students after successful completion of university training by providing them sericulture courses with knowledge in theoretical background and skills in practical field work.
According to Semir, among East African countries, Ethiopia is the only country to export wild silk products to markets abroad because silk products in Ethiopia are organic by nature as the plantation for rearing uses natural fertilizers.
The country has also granted with diversified climate, vegetation and topography, and this is also true for diversified options of sericulture industry which are adopted on different vegetation for rearing of silk-worms, and different species of silkworms. Besides, he discoursed that the country has bimodal rainfall pattern, ambient temperature, and other agro-ecological factors provide a fertile ground for mulberry and caster seed cultivation and silkworm production.
Some of the areas of investment in sericulture which have incredible employment potential in the country include collection and processing of cocoon, silk based textile production, silkworm seed production as well as production of cocoon processing equipment, he added.
Therefore, Semir said it is quite important to introduce sericulture technology to the local community by providing them with expertise, new plant cultivator, new silkworm seeds and the overall production scheme through training.
He further stated that silk production can be integrated with other farming activities like fish farming, aquaculture, beekeeping or apiculture, vegetable production and poultry farming.
“In addition to feeding silkworms, mulberry leaves can serve as animal feed and provide fruit. Farmers also integrate silkworm production with poultry production as the chickens feed dead and over produced worms. Sericulture is an agro-based enterprise highly suited for both large and small land holdings, with low capital investment,” he added.
As learnt from Semir, silk products are purchased by the urban rich consumers and the final value of silk fabrics flows back to the primary producers in rural areas. It plays a significant role in transferring prosperity from the rich to the poor sections of the society.
As to him, creating rural industries such as sericulture can effectively reduce poverty as it is labor intensive industry and brings about rural development. Sericulture is advantageous for women, to control their own earnings, helps them develop their own business and have lucrative income. Silk production in particular, provides women with economic opportunities.
Mulberry leaf is also considered as commercial crop because its stems, leaves, roots will be used for industrial and pharmaceutical purposes he said adding in Ethiopia, silks are produced in different agro-ecological zones by some companies through commercial as well as smallholder farmers both as a source of income and employment opportunity. Besides, silks are highly profitable activities.
In general, he wrapped up his idea saying natural factors like the presence of shortage of water supply, drought, inadequate rainfall, flood, frost, diseases and pests, location and season specific production are often beyond the control of farmers and institutions that is the main reasons for low sericulture productivity as well. Besides, rural roads inaccessibility, high transportation cost and lack of means of information communication for efficient flow of goods unsuitable transportation facilities and market information are attributable to the diminutive level of sericulture production.
Besides, he added shortage of capital, lack of necessary facilities and inputs, absence of skill and knowledge, attitude problem, dearth of necessary support from government and others have made sericulture cultivation a sluggish one. Therefore, the sector requires due attention via proper management practices, continuous follow-up and holistic support as needed in order to enhance the quality and production scales thereby reinvigorating sericulture production for better future on citizens’ livelihood effectively using the subsector.
It is also quite lucrative to strengthen sericulture industry linkage with experienced professionals from various research institutes, and universities, private companies, different project groups and others have to join forces to boost the good experiences of sericulture practices, encourage and promote farmers and out growers to push the sector forward, he opined.
Most importantly, researchers must conduct scientific studies with a view to promoting sericulture, enhancing income generation via addressing problems related to silk production, marketing channel and linkage for the sake of scaling up its production and productivity.
BY MENGESHA AMARE
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD FRIDAY 20 OCTOBER 2023
