As the saying goes: There are few people idle in April, and people everywhere are busy picking mulberry and raising silkworms. Entering the fourth month of the lunar calendar, silkworm farmers in Yao’an County have reached their busiest time again.
Yao’an has a long history of sericulture. Today, sericulture is still one of the important channels for many people to increase their income. In this season, green mulberry fields can be seen everywhere in the Changshou Village Committee of Dongchuan Town. The mulberry fields in the valley are connected together, swaying in the wind and setting off waves of green waves.
58-year-old Zan Pixiang has been raising silkworms for 26 years. Since the silkworms entered their fourth instar, he and his wife have become even busier. They start picking mulberry leaves at 5 a.m. every morning and feed the first meal to the silkworms at 8 a.m., nearly 1,000 meals a day. The consumption of kilograms of mulberry leaves, coupled with his wife’s illness, made him a little bit overwhelmed. Looking at the white and plump silkworms, Zan Pixiang touched them again and again, hoping that this year’s spring silkworms could be sold at a good price.
“Now I wake up from my old sleep. It has been almost 11 days. I will start feeding the medicine tonight and let it go to the fence. The busiest days are the past few days. Due to the weather, the time has been postponed. It was originally nine days. Then you can go to the gate.” Zan Pixiang said.
Changshou Village is the first village in Yao An to embark on the road of sericulture and prosperity. Nearly 900 of the 1,810 households in the village are raising sericulture. Each year, sericulture alone can achieve an output value of 13 million yuan. There are more than 60 families like Zan Pixiang’s family whose annual income from sericulture is about 100,000 yuan. Wuhai Village in Guanglu Town is also one of the key sericulture production areas in Yao’an County. In 2019, it was rated as a “one village, one product” professional village for the development of sericulture industry.
When entering Wuhai Village during this time, everyone is busy picking mulberry leaves, feeding silkworms, shoveling silkworm excrement, and preparing for spring silkworms. In the mulberry field of Wu Hai Group 6, 61-year-old Wu Baohong and his wife are busy picking mulberry leaves. Although they are old, the high income from sericulture makes Wu Baohong reluctant to rest.
“I have been raising silkworms for more than 20 years. I can earn more than 20,000 yuan a year and support my own life. My two children are now grown. It is still cost-effective to raise silkworms. If I can raise them, I still can. It will take a few more years to raise them,” Wu Baohong said.
In Wuhai Village, there are more than 420 sericulture households like Wu Baohong. The income from sericulture is the main source of income for the villagers besides working.
“This year we are focusing on the five red flags proposed by the county party committee and government, and we are striving to create a prosperous Hongqi Village. We are very confident, because more than 80% of our farmers’ main income depends on sericulture, and one of our large households It can reach 80,000 to 90,000 per year, and ordinary farmers have stabilized at around 20,000, which can basically sustain a family with a slight surplus. We are confident and determined to strive for a prosperous industry in Hongqi Village.” Gong, Secretary of the Party Branch of Wuhai Village Yunlong said.
It is understood that Yao’an County currently has a total of 39,500 acres of mulberry fields and 4,138 sericulture farmers. This year, a total of 4,350 spring silkworm seeds have been distributed, with an estimated production of 181 tons of cocoons. Calculated based on the price of the same period in previous years, spring silkworms alone will produce 181 tons of cocoons. The output value can be 10 million yuan. In the next step of work, the county will strengthen scientific and technological innovation and the transformation of results, speed up the replacement of silkworm seeds, help silkworm farmers increase their income and become rich, and drive continued revitalization of the countryside.
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