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Uzbekistan|life|May 30, 2014 / 04:51 PM
Uzbekistan cultivates silkworms for silk production

AKIPRESS.COM - silkworms Cultivating silkworms for silk production is the second largest agricultural industry controlled by the Uzbek Government after cotton, UzNews reports.

May is the time when silkworm cocoons are ready for processing. In Uzbekistan, silkworms are cultivated according to ancient traditions at home. The entire family participates in feeding the continuously growing caterpillars. Cultivating silk cocoons has been practiced in Uzbekistan for centuries with the methods of production today resembling those used in the Middle Ages.

The caretakers need to maintain a constant temperature and supply the silkworms with fresh mulberry leaves. The temperature has to be 27-28 degrees.

By continuously eating, the caterpillars grow to about 70 times their original weight by the end of May. They consume 100-200 kilograms of fresh mulberry leaves per day. After about a month they start spinning cocoons around themselves.

Silk production, as with cotton, is an odd mix of voluntary and forced labor in Uzbekistan. The state strictly controls the silk producing process. Farmers and other rural residents reportedly receive 40-50 grams of larvae packed in small boxes from the Government in late April or early May.

Rural families may deliver more than 25 thousand tons of cocoons a year to the Government. Uzbekistan is the third largest producer of silk after China and India. Uzbekistan produces 85% of the silk produced within the the CIS. Silk cocoons are a source of foreign currency for the state, with 70% of harvest being exported.

When it’s time to harvest, the collected cocoons are sorted and delivered to collection points from where they are taken to special fabric making facilities and turned into silver threads for producing satin and adras, precious silk fabric.

Uzbek traditional clothing is made of satin while adras cloth is an integral part of a bride’s dowry.

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