Sericulture of Thailand

by Dr. Somphob Jongruaysup History of Sericulture in Thailand

Found the scarp of silk fabric attaching to a prehistoric bronze bracelet dating back 2,400-3,500 years at Ban Chiang, Udornthani province indicating that sericulture of Thailand might be on going over 3,000 years Historical evident in the period of SukhoThai and Ayutthaya showed that silk fabric had been used but it was imported from China In the past, silk fabric was the symbolic of rank and society status of the people by using its types, colour and design as the indicators History of Sericulture in Thailand (continued)

 Sericulture was prevalent during the reign of the King Rama V  In 1902 Then Silk Craftsmen Division was established under Dr. Toyama as the director  In 1903 the Department of Silk Craftsmen was established under the directorship by Prince Phenpattanaphong.  At the present, Sericulture development has started seriously again when Her Majesty the Queen Sirikit had a thought to bring the farmer having regularly annual income. History of Sericulture in Thailand (continued)

the 19th January 1999 Her Majesty the Queen Sirikit once said “Sericulture is not only the source of extra income for farmers but also the historical and fine culture of the Thai nation that has long been inherited. No matter how the country’s economy has changed, development of Sericulture must continue”. The Queen Sirikit Department of Sericulture Vision To be the leader of sericulture in ASEAN and sustainable development of Thai silk to meet the international Level Mission

 Enhance the potential of production and add value to mulberry, silk, and products thereof.  Research and develop mulberry and silk worm varieties as well as production technology, plant protection, and processing of mulberry, silk, and products thereof.  Develop and promote the conservation and protection of silk worm genetics as well as strengthen culture and local wisdom on sericulture.  Develop and support the establishment of production cluster and technology transfer.  Develop and promote marketing and management of mulberry, silk, and products thereof along the supply chain.  Complete the missions in compliance with the legal requirements. Mulberry and Silk Productions

 Agriculture is the foundation of Thailand’s economy.  Approximately, 54 %of the total population (69 million) is engaged in this sector.  Of the country’s total area of 51.36 million hectares, about 46% is under cultivation.  The land, both irrigated and non-irrigated, is used by some 5.3 million farm families producing agricultural goods for domestic consumption and export.  Seri Sericulture is a traditional and cultural way of life of the Thai people.  In 2017, sericulture practices covered 57 out of the total 77 provinces with the total mulberry planting area of 7,553 hectares.  The approximate number of farmers who engaged in sericulture were 82,071 household most of whom (80%) lived in the Northeastern part of Thailand.  Most farmers are of small-scale who practice sericulture as a supplementary occupation apart from paddy field. Sericultural Data in Thailand 2000 - 2017 Categories of Thai Silk Depending on whether the yarn is reeled by hand or by machine Hand-reeled yarn  Produced on the farm using relatively simple equipment.  Farmer may sell their hand-reeled yarn to factories or weave it themselves to produce fabric in traditional styles.  Production is based on native ‘polyvoltine’ silkworm varieties that give low yields but are tolerant of local conditions and are therefore relatively easy to rear.  Some new ‘Thai hybrid’ silkworm varieties have been developed which are more productive and which preserve the ‘lustrous’ character of traditional Thai silk. Machine-reeled yarn

 Farmers produce and sell cocoons and the yarn is reeled in factories.  Silkworms are ‘bivoltine’ varieties which are highly productive but require higher levels of skill and care than polyvoltine or ‘Thai hybrid’ varieties.  Farmers have larger mulberry holdings and produce at a larger scale than the hand-reelers.  However, there are no fixed barriers between the two sub-sectors; farmers may rear ‘Thai hybrid’ varieties for hand-reeling during some production cycles and switch to import ‘bivoltine hybrid’ varieties for sale to factories in other production cycles each year. Mulberry cultivation practices

 Widely of low yielding local varieties.  The QSDS introduced new varieties Buriram 60, Srisaket 84 , Sakolnakhon, and Sakolnakhon 85 to replace the farmer’s low yielding varieties.  These 4 varieties can provide 688, 506, 560, 545 kg per hectare per year, respectively.  Other varieties found in Thailand are native ones eg; Noi and Khun Pai varieties provide 320 – 400 kg per hectare per year.  Generally, the mulberry plantations are renewed once every 10 years, by extracting the old trees and planting new ones (The reason is that the trees are harvested very intensively under the tropical climate, resulting in their exhaustion). Buriram 60 sakonnakhon

Si Sa Ket 84

Sakonnakhon 85 khunpai Silkworm variety  In the past, the farmer used the Thai native silkworm varieties obtained by self breeding recommended by former generations.  The agriculture characteristics of Thai silkworm were: yellow cocoon with small size and having shuttle shape.  Next, silkworm breeding had been developed in the King Rama V. At that time, Dr. Kamataro Toyama (silkworm breeding specialist) from the Kyoto University, Japan came to Thailand and taught Thai people how to use new technology on silkworm breeding. Dr. Kamataro Toyama had brought silkworm from Japan as the parents to breed with Thai Hybrid silkworm varieties.  Up to the present time, there have been no less than 100 varieties as Thai silkworm for conserving. Of the eleven varieties have been recommended and certified from Department of Agriculture. The Thai Hybrid silkworm which has been using presently is Ubon Ratchathani 60-35 (Dok Bua) and J108xNL. There are 3 types of Thai silkworm varieties 1. Thai native silkworm variety It is indigenous variety of the country including improved varieties. The dominant characteristics are: yellow cocoons with shuttle shapes, silk yarn length as 250-350 meters per cocoon. 2. Improved Thai variety These varieties are developed and improved within the country by having all genes or some not taken from the Thai native silkworm variety. The Improved Thai varieties are classified into 3 types as the following: a). Improved Thai native silkworm variety: It is a Thai polyvoltine type which its agriculture characteristics are similar to Thai native silkworm variety with yellow cocoons such as SR.4, Nongkhai 4(NK.4) and Pakchong 21 (P.C. 21) b). Thai Hybrids silkworm variety: It is a variety which was obtained between Thai native silkworm varieties or Improved Thai variety race and hybrid silkworms (polyvoltine into bivoltine, bivoltine into polyvoltine). This race has yellow cocoon with the silk yarn length as 600-800 meters per cocoon. c). Hybrid variety: This race is one of Thai varieties as bivoltine race which was developed to produce white cocoon and other colour cocoons such as yellow cocoon. The cocoon is oval, peanut and round shape by having of 1000 meters of silk yarn length per cocoon. 3. Foreign silkworm variety This variety was imported from other countries in particular China. They are Hybrid silkworms with white and oval shape cocoon. Native variety Improved variety Chinese X Japanese Silkworm rearing forms In Thailand, The rearing silkworm have been divided in to 2 groups as the following: Handmade silk yarn based on local wisdom technique integrated with using new technology for silkworm rearing. Most of the farmer who work on this is rearing the silkworm as an additional career or supplementary income. Hence, all work has been done by working only within the family labour. The cocoon and silk yarn productions are yellow one. A number of farmer who work on handmade silk yarn 94 percent located in the Northeastern part of the country. Industry silk yarn This type of silkworm has been rearing for commercial. Most of the farmer who works on this is rearing the silkworm as a main career. Most of them are the member of the company or silk reeling firms. There also is contract farming between each other. Consequently, the farmer must have the area for mulberry cultivation not less than 3.0 rai incorporated with good maintenance. Compared with handmade silk yarn, the farmer who works on industry silk yarn must more take care of their mulberry fields such as fertilizer application, weeding and pest control. In addition, the farmer has their own silkworm rearing house with complete other necessary materials. For any factors such as silkworm eggs, fertilizer and other chemical materials, the company or silk reeling firms in contract farming will supported and will subtracted after selling the cocoons. There are about 300 households working on this career. The used silkworm varieties are hybrids and foreign varieties. Community reeling

Traditional hand reel

Reeling Factory Sericulture products Silk fabric products Mulberry products: mulberry tea, mulberry fruiting juice etc., Value-added products for specific purposes: cosmetic and medicines Products from QSDS Research

Mulberry New Hybrid Supplementary Food

Pupa Si Sa Ket 84 Sakon Naknon Cordyceps Silk Fabric Designs Pharmaceutical & Cosmetics Thank you