Nanqiao Sericulture

Nanqiao Sericulture

　　Sericulture refers to the cultivation of silkworms and mulberry trees. It was a crucial pillar of ancient agriculture. Legend has it that it was invented by Leizu (the principal wife of the Yellow Emperor). Sericulture culture is a core component of Han Chinese culture and, together with rice paddy culture, marks the maturity of East Asian agrarian civilization. As for the major elements of Han Chinese culture — silk culture and porcelain culture — they signify the golden age of Central Plains civilization.

　　Nanqiao Village is located in Didong Town, Gong County, Yibin City, Sichuan Province. Here, lush and neatly arranged mulberry fields stretch out as far as the eye can see, while a network of cement roads crisscrosses the area, leading to every household. Small Western-style houses adorned with green tiles and red walls are tucked away among the emerald-green mulberry-covered hills. Against the backdrop of blue skies and white clouds, they appear particularly majestic and eye-catching. A winding, hardened Nanfeng Road runs through the entire village, like a fresh painting of a mountain hamlet, transforming its former appearance into a new and vibrant one. Under the leadership of the village’s Party and administrative committees, all villagers have actively experimented with new sericulture techniques. They improved the traditional method — which involved four separate seasons of breeding (spring, summer, autumn, and late autumn) with intervals in between — to a system where the second batch of silkworms begins to be raised as soon as the first batch reaches its second molting stage, while also implementing collective rearing of young silkworms. This multi-batch, rolling sericulture approach not only increases the number of batches and overall yield but also reduces mulberry leaf waste. The traditional schedule of 3–4 sericulture cycles per year has been changed to 5–8 cycles per year. This year, this new technique has been promoted throughout the county. The trial farming of naturally colored silkworm cocoons has also succeeded. In the first half of 2009, based on the “factory-style” sericulture promoted last year, Nanqiao Village established a ‘company + association + farmer’ production model and introduced colored silkworm cocoons for trial farming. The village Party branch secretary, Li Yuekang, became the first to try this and achieved success. Inspired by him, the whole village expanded its breeding scale.