Conservation and breeding of natural silkworm (Bombyx mori L.) in Indonesia

Abstract

Natural silk farming is a series of silk agro-industry activities from mulberry cultivation, silkworm maintenance, cocoon production and processing, silk spinning and weaving. Many supporting factors for the development of natural silk in Indonesia. However, the natural silk industry is getting worse with high import values. The main problem is the low quality of silkworm egg seeds. The Forest Research and Development Center (P3H) is a government agency authorized for natural silk commodity development. This study aims to describe the efforts of conservation and breeding of natural silkworm in Indonesia. The material used for conservation is the germ plasma silkworms collection owned by P3H. Whereas for breeding activities, silkworms used are produced from conservation activities. Conservation is carried out using eggs of the same type of strain in the germ-plasma, while breeding is done by crossing various types of moths. The result of conservation is the maintenance of 58 germ plasma silkworms. While breeding results are a type of hybrid caterpillar PS 01, which has a production advantage compared to commercial types CS 03. The dissemination of results such as hybrid PS 01, which has a comparative advantage needs to be improved to help overcome the problem of Indonesian silkworms.

Cultivation and Breeding Techniques for Increase Silk Productivity in Indonesia

“…Silkworm cultivation consists of raising small and large caterpillars, which takes about 30 -36 days. The maintenance time for small caterpillars is about 12 days, while the maintenance for large/adult silkworms is 12-16 days (5). The result of the silkworm business is a cocoon.…”

“…FRDC has germplasm banks from several geographic origins and is subsequently used as material for silkworm breeding programs. The FRDC silkworm pure strain collection [5] came from 10 countries consisting of 57 strains. The 44 lanes mostly come from the Tropical Race (4 lanes), China (18 lanes), and Japan (22 lanes), and the other 13 lanes have not been identified.…”

“…Silkworm breeding targets are seeds with high adaptability to various environmental conditions, good cocoon quality, and lots of eggs with high hatchability (18). One of the breeding products produced by FRDC is the PS 01 silkworm hybrid, which is a cross between a Japanese female race and a Chinese male race [5]. The hybrid product showed an increase in the productivity of silkworm seeds, mainly on cocoon production per box, cocoon shell ratio, filament length and rolling power (Table 2).…”

“…These advantages are good in terms of biophysical, socio-economic, and socio-cultural aspects. Indonesia's environmental characteristics make it ideal for silk production due to the high intensity of sunlight throughout the year and the availability of open land [5]. Some areas are silk-producing areas such as Yogyakarta, West Java, and some small-scale production in Bali.…”

Lens on Tropical Sericulture Development in Indonesia: Recent Status and Future Directions for Industry and Social Forestry

“…One of the non-timber forest products with the potential to resolve economic challenges during and after a crisis is the natural silk produced by sericulture agribusiness. Sericulture is a prospective and potential activity that can regularly generate higher income [ 15 , 16 ]. Apart from its ability to provide gainful employment and economic improvement for people in rural areas due to the high selling price of its products [ 15 , 16 ], sericulture also plays an important role in preventing the migration of rural people to urban areas in search of employment [ 17 , 18 ].…”