SIXTY-two-year-old Emilia Cabilic evenly places piles of mulberry leaves, careful not to startle the velvety silkworm caterpillars who are eating voraciously at the fresh, green leaves at the production hub of Balubal Sericulture Farmer Association in Barangay Balubal, Cagayan de Oro City.
Cabilic and the other women farmers would repeat the process until the caterpillars reach the stage when it’s ready to spin a cocoon of silk threads around itself 30 days later.
She would then harvest the cocoons and sell them at P400 to P500 a kilo.
“We feed them every day. You can hear them eat the leaves,” Cabilic said.
The velvety silkworm caterpillars are providing hope and livelihood among the women at the relocation site in Barangay Balubal, some 19 kilometers east of Cagayan de Oro City.
“Aside from the livelihood, we started something that made changes among the women in the relocation site,” Marilyn Galindo Arabis, president of the Balubal Sericulture Farmer Association.
Arabis said because the caterpillars need constant care and attention, the women in their association go to the small farmhouse where the caterpillar larvas are housed.
She said she is proud that they have already made 14 harvests since the project was started in 2021.
Cabilic said she is proud of their achievement in the success of their sericulture.
“We did not rely on (aid) during the Covid-19 pandemic. The caterpillars were able to feed us,” she said.
The Balubal Sericulture Farmer Association has only 14 members because the size of its farm—one hectare—can not sustain the increase in cocoon production.
Kris Buntag, chief of the Cagayan de Oro Social Entrepreneurship Program said the City Housing and Urban Development department is planning to develop another two hectares for sericulture for the beneficiaries of the Cagayan de Oro Resettlement Socialized Housing Project 4 in Barangay Balubal.
The Cagayan de Oro Resettlement Socialized Housing Project 4 in Barangay Balubal is being settled by some 4,000 families that used to dwell in urban poor communities in Cagayan de Oro.
“Presently Arabis and the women have only one hectare but we want to add another two hectares because they are a success,” Buntag said.
Buntag said the cocoon production of the Balubal farmers is about 40 kilos per harvest barely enough to fill the demand for silk in the Philippines.
“We agree that the income derived from sericulture is barely enough to sustain the basic needs of the women. That is the reason why we are developing two more hectares of land for them,” Buntag said.
The Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Research Institute Research Institute (DoST-PTRI) estimated the demand for local silk which is used for clothes at 10 tons a year.
According to the DoST, the global silk market is pegged at US$ 15.6 billion in 2021. Because its threads are luscious and lightweight, silk is highly in demand in the clothing industry to make gowns, scarves, robes, dresses, and shirts.
The DoST set up a silk research and innovation center in Claveria, Misamis Oriental to help the sericulture farmers in Balubal and four other production centers in Misamis Oriental.
The center buys the cocoons from the farmers and sells them to weavers nationwide like those set up in Laguindingan, Misamis Oriental.
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