亚洲美女偷拍天堂|蜜桃视频久久网址|噜噜噜色综合久久天天|在线观看成人专区|AV天堂导航网站|在线视频一区二区三区精品观看|人妻中文字幕有吗|国产躁逼免费一区|色婷婷狠狠a久久|蜜臀888.www

The cultivation of mulberry plants, used for rearing silkworms, is becoming a new income venture worthy of serious investment.

Sericulture is the rearing of silkworms on the leaves of mulberry plants to produce silk cocoons from which raw silk or silk yarn is produced.

Silk is a high value natural fibre for making precious textiles, carpets and other products that are on high demand on the international market.

"Silk production in Uganda is a promising agro-enterprise aimed at increasing household incomes, reducing poverty in rural areas and diversifying sources of the country's foreign exchange earnings," said Janat Mukwaya, the agriculture minister, in a recent visit to the mulberry gardens at Kawanda Research Institute.

In the late 1990s, a number of farmers took on the cultivation of mulberry plants and later embarked on the rearing of silkworms but failed to raise anything out of it.

Mobwe Factory is now a farmer-owned factory, which has been established by a group of different farmers engaged in the sericulture business. It is funded by African Development Foundation and DANIDA.

With the acquisition of the factory, a number of farmers from Bushenyi, Kanungu, Mbarara, Kashongi, Isingiro and Wakiso districts have now been trained on how to plant the mulberry gardens and equipped with techniques of rearing the silkworms.

However, more farmers are still needed to venture into the rearing of the silkworms for cocoon production. Currently a total of 15,000 farmers are needed to supply cocoons to the already established factories in Kawanda, Wakiso and Bushenyi districts.

Rearing of silkworms needs at least one acre for mulberry establishment and a rearing house of 30ft by 20ft fitted with rearing beds, silkworm eggs, spinning frames, spray pumps, disinfectants, herbicides, fertilisers/manure, polythene sheets, secateurs and pruning saws.

Mulberry plants are grown for the production of leaves required for feeding silkworms. Mulberry varieties of K2 and Thailand give good leaf yields and are drought-resistant. The others are L6, S-41, S.54, M40, Gither and S36.

To be a regular supplier of cocoons enough land of mulberry should be prepared by removing perennial weeds such as couch grass (lumbugu) and planting at the onset of the rains, with cuttings got from mature sections of the stem (8-10 months old).

Gerald Mukasa, the chief technician and production manager of Mobwe Silk Development Limited. says silkworms undergo complete metamorphosis. "It is the larval stage which is active and feeds exclusively on mulberry leaves," he explains.

After 21 days, farmers harvest the cocoons and sort them before selling them to reering units. At the units cocoons are distinguished into grades A, B and C. A kilo of Grade A goes for sh28,000, B for sh1,200 and C sh800.

They are later boiled for 15 to 30 minutes before being brushed in cold water. This eases the removal of the thread from the cocoons.


The reelers dry or stifle the cocoons and reel them into silk threads, which are used for weaving to make silk textiles, carpets and other products. The capacity of the factory is one tonne everyday but due to the limited number of farmers supplying cocoons, they are unable to run the factory everyday.

China has placed an order of six tonnes of threads per month. India wants eight tonnes, Japan 100 tonnes per year, Egypt 200 tonnes per month and Zimbabwe and South Africa want 100 kilograms. Despite this, Uganda only produces 20 tonnes annually.