沙漠研究 25-3, 237-240 (2015) Ἃ₍◊✲ Journal of Arid25-3, Land 237 -240Studies (2015) － ICAL 2 Refereed Paper － Journal of Arid Land Studies ̺ICAL 2 Refereed paper̺ Transfer and Localization of Sericulture Technology for Redeveloping Silk Industry in Central Asia - An Integrated Effort of Academic Research and Extension - Masaaki YAMADA*1), Yoshiko KAWABATA 2), Mitsuo OSAWA 1), Makoto IIKUBO 3), Umarov SHAVKAT 4), Vyacheslav APARIN 5) and Shiho KAGAMI 1)

Abstract: Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology has been collaborating with the Uzbek Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources and the Uzbek Research Institute of Sericulture on two rural development projects in the Republic of Uzbekistan. This cooperative effort is sponsored by the Japan International Cooperation Agency. After concluding an initial project in the Fergana Valley, where environmental conditions are suitable for successful silkworm rearing, University staff and local Uzbek counterparts undertook follow-up research in some of the harshest climate conditions of Uzbekistan. This was done to ascertain the extent to which introduced sericulture technology might be adopted anywhere within Uzbekistan. In 2013, this follow-up project was launched in four communities of Shavat County in Uzbekistan’s Khorezm Province. The Japanese Kinshu × Showa autumn-breed and Shungetsu × Hosho spring-breed of silkworms (Bombyx mori) were distributed to cocoon producers, who received regular technical visits from the experts dispatched from Japan. All project participants were asked for their appraisal of the two introduced silkworm breeds, and associated rearing systems. They reported that they were satisfied with the increased cocoon harvests, and expressed their interest in acquisition of Japanese mulberry (Morus alba) cultivars, which they felt may better sustain the large appetites of the introduced silkworm breeds. The respondents also especially liked a laborsaving technique that uses plastic netting for quick and safe removal of leftover mulberry leaves and silkworm feces from the rearing bed. The Uzbek government has requested continued technical cooperation with the University, emphasizing silkworm foundation stock and improved breeding lines.

Key Words: International technical cooperation, JICA, Silk thread, TUAT, URIS.

2013 and 2014; Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, 2014). 1. Introduction The initial project “Revitalization of the Silk Road Silk Industry in Uzbekistan - Developing a Rural Income Raw silk supply to global silk garment markets has Generation Model by Improved Sericulture in Fergana Valley” declined drastically in recent years, due to the sharp decline in (September 2009-August 2012) led to a Memorandum of exports by the dominant producer, China. Chinese export of Understanding of technical cooperation that was signed at the raw silk contracted from 14,700 MT in 2002 to 7,700 MT in 10th Japan-Uzbekistan Joint Economic Conference in Tokyo 2012A). This decline was primarily due to dwindling (Yamada et al., 2012) between the State Joint-Stock Company family-based sericulture in the recently urbanized and Uzbekengilsanoat and the University. On this occasion, the industrialized Eastern Coast of China (Fan et al., 2008; Kubo, University recommended that its Uzbek partner establish 2014). This has resulted in rising raw silk prices B, C), offering young silkworms (Bombyx mori) communal rearing facilities a niche opportunity for the promotion of capital/land-saving to both increase cocoon productivity and to alleviate the work and labor-intensive family farm-based silk productionD). This burden on sericulturists. The University presented the same effort initially aims to furnish raw silk primarily for the recommendation to the director of the Uzbek Research domestic market. Then later on, when silk production Institute of Sericulture (URIS) while concluding fieldwork on techniques advanced sufficiently, export grade silk can be the project in August 2012. In December of that year, a provided to the quality-demanding international marketE, F). Cabinet Order was proclaimed which resulted in the With this backdrop, Tokyo University of Agriculture and establishment of 196 sericulture rearing facilities throughout Technology (hereinafter called the University) financed by the the country, each having the capacity to rear through pupation Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has 50 to 100 boxes (29 grams of silkworm eggs per box) at a time undertakensericulture development projects in Uzbekistan (Madyarov and Umarov, 2013). The University was (Yamada et al., 2012; Japan International Cooperation Agency, informally invitedto manage two of these facilities. In a related * Corresponding Author: [email protected] 㸦Received, August 28th, 2014; Accepted, April 1st, 2015㸧 3-5-8 Saiwaicho, Fuchu, Tokyo 183-8509, Japan Tel: +81-42-367-5886 Fax: +81-+81-42-367-5886 1) Institute of Agriculture, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology 2) International Center, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology 3) The United Graduate School of Agricultural Science, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology 4) Uzbek Sericulture Research Institute, Uzbekistan 5) Hydrogeology and Engineering Geology Institute, Ministry of Geology of Republic of Uzbekistan, Republic of Uzbekistan 238 development, the University’s project office in Tashkent received visits from the local representative of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, which had begun implementing a German-supported official development assistance project titled “Sustainable Economic Development in Selected Regions of Uzbekistan” (2009-2014)G). The GIZ representative expressed his interest in assuming responsibility for the University’s initiative, if the University ever became unable to continue its work in Uzbekistan. GIZ’s goal would be to disseminate enhanced production of high-quality sericulture all over the country (Tokyo University of Fig. 1. Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology sericulture project sites in the Fergana Valley (first project at Yozyovon Agriculture and Technology, 2012). As a result, the and Vodil Counties) and Khorezm Province (second project at University proposed a second project: “Technical Cooperation Shavat County) (modified form Wikimedia Commons of a Project for Promotion of the Silk-Road Industry in Uzbekistan NASA satellite image). - Developing a Technical Transfer Model to Increase Sideline mulberry plantations and silkworm-rearing rooms, and to Income of Remote Villages” (March 2013-September 2015). conduct interviews with the participant farmers, with Mr. This second project was inaugurated in the Khorezm - Amu Djabbarov interpreting. Darya River Delta area, surrounded by the Kyzyl Kum and Kara Kum deserts. It was assumed that if this effort is 3. Results and Discussion successful in the harshest climate of Uzbekistan, then the introduced Japanese sericulture technology can be successfully The University’s sericulture development project in applied everywhere in the country. Khorezm was launched in March 2013, when experts were dispatched from Japan to work with Uzbek counterparts 2. Methods (government administrators, researchers, extensionists, sericulturists, textile manufacturers, and cloth-goods producers When this project in the Khorezm - Amu Darya River and retailers) to help facilitating reestablishment of the local Delta had been approved by JICA, the authors undertook a silk industry. Japanese single-cross Kinshu × Showa and survey of participating Uzbek sericulturists, to assess their double-cross Shungetsu × Hosho silkworm breeds were socioeconomic status and technological aptitudes/preferences. distributed to participating cocoon producers. Participating The authors designed a questionnaire in Japanese language family iszes ranged from four (4) to thirty two (32), with the which was translated into Uzbek by Mr. Muzaffar Djabbarov, a average of eight (8) persons per family. Some family local staffer and translator in the University’s Uzbek project. members were engaged in off-farm employment as teachers, Mr. Djabbarov administered the questionnaire during his machinery operators, rural extentionists, policemen and routine visits to project participants at Shavat (15 families) and migrant workers. There were three (3) midsized-farm Buyrachi (1 family) Townships, and Beshmergen (10 families) -enterprise (fermer) leaders in Shavat Township, who were and Hitoy (6 families) Rural Citizens' Assemblies of Shavat sustaining their large families of ten (10), twenty three (23) and County (41°39’36” N 60°17’24” E) in Khorezm Province (Fig. thirty two (32) respectively, and also organizing local 1), from April through June 2013. The questionnaire asked family-farm (dehkan) households for contract production of about: 1) the participants’ family members’ age, gender, government-monopolized cotton, wheat and silk cocoons education and employment; 2) how they became aware of and (Yamada et al., 2012). These fermer leaders worked with a participated in the project; 3) what they expected and learned sericulture instructor in Shavat Township to recruit the project from the project; 4) how many years and heads they had reared participants, coming mainly of their farm enterprises. The silkworms; 5) sericulture tasks assigned to each family majority of participants had good experience in sericulture: out member; 6) cocoon production, rate and previous year sales; 7) of total of thirty two (32) respondents, only eight (8) had less family mulberry (Morus alba) tree location, number, fodder than ten (10) years of practice, while almost two-thirds had sufficiency, minor use and problems; 8) farmland, machinery, thirty (30) to more than fifty (50) years of silk making livestock, annual farm inputs, family consumption, and sales experience. All participating sericulturists received regular from private agricultural plots; 9) off-farm income; 10) technical visits from both Japanese and Uzbek experts, and agricultural calendar; and 11) other observations. In April expressed their opinions about the introduced silkworm breeds 2013, the authors conducted field visits in Khorezm, to observe and rearing techniques (Table 1). They were satisfied with 239

Table 1. Participant impressions on introduced Japanese silkworm Table 2. Participant farmer opinions on the present fodder mulberry (Bombyx mori) breeds and rearing technique (multiple (Morus alba) trees. answers). persons % persons % Unproductive local varieties 14 43.8 Useful plastic nets for bed-cleaning 18 56.3 Replanting/grafting trees needed 12 37.5 Productive Japanese silkworms 21 65.6 Japanese varieties wanted 7 21.9 large caterpillars & cocoons 15 46.9 current plantations too aged 5 15.6 leaf production in short 5 15.6 improved use of space 5 15.6 More plantation trees needed 3 9.4 large appetite 4 12.5 Other shortcomings 4 12.5 easy to rear 4 12.5 No problems so far 7 21.9 uniform growth 3 9.4

Fig. 3. Preparation of mulberry (Morus alba) leaves for feeding young silkworms (Bombyx mori; left), and a ‘Japanese’ large- and thick-leafed mulberry tree surviving from the Soviet era (right).

Table 3. Cocoon production results of the introduced Japanese Fig. 2. Conventional spacing of young silkworms (Bombyx mori; silkworm (Bombyx mori) varieties in Shavat County, upper left), and demonstration of plastic nets at different mesh Khorezm Province (rearing from April 22 - cocooning on for quick and safe bed-cleaning and spacing (upper right and May 22 3, 2013). the lower photos). ט Community, the Japanese silkworms, as they had hearty appetites and good (g)

Silkworm, Feedlot Farms box (kg) health, which facilitated achieving their cocoon production ratio (%) Cocoons per liter Cocoons per box Cocoon weight per Cocoon avg. weight quota. They also liked the introduced plastic netting, as it Feedlot avg. (boxes) Cocoon shell weight Shavat 16 2.7 77.2 1.49 52,089 21.4 94.5 facilitated bed-cleaning and spacing, greatly alleviating their Beshmergen 10 1.2 66.9 1.47 45,944 20.3 96.2 workload (Fig. 2). Hitoy 5 0.8 96.4 1.83 53,017 22.6 78.8 Buyrachi 1 3 60.7 1.36 44,529 19.3 104 On the other hand, as the new variety of silkworms ate well Kinshu x Showa 11 3 73.4 1.48 49,479 21.3 94.9 and developed faster than the feeders were accustomed to, they Shungetsu x Hosho 21 1.4 73.8 1.5 49,079 21.3 94.9 fell short in supplying mulberry leaves (Table 2, Fig. 3). This 0.5 box 3 0.5 93.3 1.77 53,085 21.9 78 1 box 15 1 76.5 1.53 50,477 21.1 94.3 was especially true of those who relied upon mulberry leaves 2 boxes 6 2.2 78.7 1.55 50,672 21.7 89.3 supplied by the fermer leaders, who collected mulberry 3 boxes 4 3 65.9 1.4 47,219 20.4 100.5 •4 boxes 4 5 70.8 1.47 48,289 21.1 96.3 branches from distant fields and hauled them on tractors to total/avg. 32 1.9 73.6 1.49 48,738 21.3 94.9 silkworm feeders. The farmers expressed their interest in acquisition of Japanese mulberry cultivars, which had once the need for more room space as sericulture expands, to reduce been introduced to the region during the Soviet regime and had workload, and to improve cocoon quality, it is recommended to proved to be productive. They felt that the Japanese cultivars establish communal or commercial rearing facilities for young might better feed the hungry silkworms than local mulberry silkworms (Kumari and Rajan, 2013), and to use space-saving varieties. During the authors’ farm visits in April 2013, some and humidity-controlled rearing shelves to grown silkwormsH). farmers showed them their large-leafed ‘Japanese mulberry’ Cocoon production of project participants, by community, trees which had survived from the Soviet era (Fig. 3). As ranged from: 60.7 kg/box (i.e., one Uzbek silkworm box many of these roadside and plantation mulberry trees, which contains twenty-nine (29) grams of eggs, of approximately had been planted before Uzbek independence, had become old, 58,000 heads of introduced Japanese-breed silkworms) in local farmers wanted replacements: either by replanting or Buyrachi, to 96.4 kg/box in Hitoy (Table 3) - both being higher grafting of improved varieties, to create additional new trees than the national average production of 57.5 kg/box in Spring and plantations (Table 2). 2013 seasonI). Cocoon production in Shavat (77.2 kg/box) The majority of sericulturists in the project used their and Hitoy (96.4 kg/box) hit or exceeded the national record innermost guest rooms, equipped with pechka stoves, to rear level (75-83 kg/box)I). According to operational scale, half young silkworms. As the caterpillars grew, they were spread (0.5) to two (2) box classes yielded 76.5-93.3 kg/box, while out on expanded beds, occupying extra rooms. To address three (3) and above box classes yielded apparently lower 240 returns of 65.9-70.8kg/box (Table 3). Three farms of a half -from-news/348840/silk-boom-opportunity-for-thailand D) Patil B.R., Singh K.K., Pawar S.E., Maarse L., Otte J. (2009): (0.5) box produced heavy and large cocoons: 1.77 g/cocoon Sericulture: An Alternative Source of Income to Enhance the and 78.0 cocoons per liter The Hitoy community consisted of Livelihoods of Small-scale Farmers and Tribal Communities. 26pp. two (2) half (0.5)-box and three (3) one (1.0)-box producers, FAO Pro-Poor Livestock Policy Initiative A Living from Livestock Research Report, http://www.fao.org/ag/againfo/programmes/en/pplpi/ these producers ranked as the highest producers in Table 3. docarc/rep-0903_indiasericulture.pdf While foreign investors are interested in large-scale silk E) International Sericultural Commission (2010): Memo- randum on the I) Problems of Sericultural Development. 9pp., http://inserco.org/en/sites/ cocoon production in Uzbekistan , current ‘Complex’ default/files/Memorandum%20Sericulture.pdf production facilities may require extra laborers to feed F) Madsen F.S. (2012): An Analysis of Global Silk Trade Linking silkworms, clean their beds, and above all, mount them for Coordination to Technological Improvements and Exports. 35pp. H) Master Thesis of Lund University, Lund, Sweden, http://inserco.org/ cocooning . The authors learned from the University project en/sites/default/files/Madsen%20%282012%29%20%20An%20 that smaller producers realized higher cocoon productivity Analysis%20of%20Global%20Silk%20Trade.pdf (Table 3), by feeding silkworms intensively and carefully, as a G) Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. Sustainable Economic Development in Selected Regions, supplemental source of income or for membership in a fermer http://www.giz.de/en/worldwide/15474. html enterprise. In today’s less developed rural conditions, the H) Sakai H. (2009): Sericulture Diary (in Japanese), http://okaikofarm. com/diary3.html Uzbek government therefore needs to focus on small producers I) Rasulov H. (2013): Beautiful Business - Sericulture development to increase national cocoon production, as well as to improve underway throughout the country, http://old.ut.uz/eng/business/ rural income. Moreover, the authors often heard of foreign beautifusl_business25.mgr businesses being criticized for exploiting Uzbek farmers, by References supplying bad silkworm breeds at high prices, and then buying Fan Z., Ono N., Wang L., Kagami S., Sunou A. (2008): A Study about the cocoons at low prices (Homidy, 2013). Therefore, the Present Conditions and Problems of the Chinese Silk Industry under the Background of “Transfer of the Chinese Silk Industry from East to positive outcome achieved by the University in this project, in West”. The Journal of Silk Science and Technology of Japan, 17: collaboration with the Fergana Silk Center, has been to locally 102-103 (in Japanese). Homidy H.I.S. 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