South China's Guangxi embraces smarter silkworm industry

NANNING, Oct. 22 (Xinhua) -- In a simple brick house in Dacai Township, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the floor was blanketed with a thick layer of fresh green mulberry leaves. On these leaves, silkworms with pale greenish-white bodies could be seen crawling and feeding.

"Look at these fourth-instar larvae," said Gu Ailei, head of Guangxi Guangtong Chunfeng Silkworm Breeding Co., Ltd., when pointing to a batch of samples. "They're in better shape than those without probiotics."

Gu explained that probiotics have proven effective against white muscardine disease. Near such samples, the likes of cooperative managers and business owners often gather, and can be heard keenly discussing the practicality of this new technique.

These technical discussions have become the norm in the industry, said Wei Facai, deputy head of the agriculture and rural affairs bureau of the city of Hechi in Guangxi.

Both enterprises and silkworm-breeding farmers actively contribute ideas and insights in pursuit of technological development -- drawing attention and sparking discussion whenever valuable solutions emerge, Wei added.

Over the years, Guangxi has gradually emerged as the largest cocoon and silk production base in China. Hechi boasts unique climatic conditions that have given rise to one of the biggest and highest-quality mulberry silkworm cocoon bases in the world.

For two decades, Hechi has topped the list of prefecture-level cities in China in terms of mulberry garden area and silkworm cocoon production. Notably -- it has also led the country in silk processing capacity for 15 consecutive years, according to Wei.

In the courtyard of Guangtong Chunfeng, a machine swiftly identified and sorted silkworm pupae, dropping them into two separate baskets.

"This is our third-generation pupa sorter," Gu said. In the past, manually sorting around 1,400 pupae took more than 30 minutes, even for skilled workers. With the third-generation machine, the time needed has been reduced to less than five minutes, he said.

At Guangxi Jialian Silk Co., Ltd., the largest cocoon and silk production enterprise in Hechi, Executive Vice President Wei Nianguang excitedly introduced their newly commissioned silkworm cocoon freezer.

Previously, after being dried, silkworm cocoons often lost their biological activity and much of their economic value, being sold only as feedstock.

However, by storing them in an intelligent temperature-controlled freezer, their biological activity can be maintained for a longer period, allowing them to be sold as raw materials for healthy food -- with a price increase of about 10,000 yuan (1,409 U.S. dollars) per tonne and broad market prospects, Wei Nianguang explained.

Silk was an important product and symbol of ancient China's interaction with the world. Today, new products, technologies and materials are providing more diversified development momentum for sericulture and the transformation of the silk industry.

Hechi is working to build better AI partnerships with ASEAN. Now, its sericulture and silk industries are also providing key industry data to support this effort.

A silkworm farmer drove a tricycle loaded with three bags of silkworm cocoons into the factory of Jialian Silk in Hechi. In less than 10 minutes, the company's self-built mulberry silkworm integrated management system completed a series of procedures concerning this batch of cocoons, ranging from the collection of silkworm farmer information to grading, warehousing and payment.

Qin Zhaoli, the station director in charge of cocoon collection, said that big data regarding both silkworm farmers and cocoon quality evaluation serves as the core of this system. It not only helps with cocoon acquisition but also assists the company in organizing and analyzing data on cocoon quantity, quality and price -- thereby improving management levels.

In the near future, Hechi plans to establish the China-ASEAN mulberry and silkworm silk digital innovation center and a silk trading center.

By leveraging the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies to integrate the entire value chain, Hechi's traditional sericulture sector is poised for significant enhancement toward a more intelligent direction, said Wei Facai.  ■