How is Japanese Silkworm Farming Conducted | Silkworm Harvesting
Japanese silk is silk harvested in Japan. The farming process can be tasking but amazing for their farmers. In this video, we will be talking about how Japanese Silkworm farming is conducted, and we'll also talk about Silk Cocoon Harvest and Process in Factory. But before we begin, make sure you like this video and hit the subscribe icon. Now, let's get going into the silk industry.
Silkworm farming was indeed dominant from the 1930s to the 1950s, but it is less common now. Silkworms, or sericulture raising, is a traditional side crop for Japanese farm families. Prior to the 1950s, most of the agriculture in Japan was organic. The reason for this is that pesticides and chemical fertilizers were not used. Human waste, which is also referred to as night soil, was collected by farmers and used as fertilizer. During this era, the introduction of chemical pesticides significantly increased crop yields and reduced insect damage. In the 1970s and 1980s, consumers began to worry about the health effects of chemical pesticides, which created a market for organic food crops. When it comes to organic produce, it is always distributed through cooperatives that directly link farmers to urban consumers. However, it is becoming even more available in many urban grocery stores specializing in natural foods.
Silkworms are used to obtain targeted proteins by the expression of cloned genes. One of those utilization methods is to obtain targeted proteins. This is done by integrating cloned DNA into the viruses' genome living within host silkworms. When this happens, the transgenic virus increases rapidly in the silkworm body, and the silkworms typically die in a few days due to the proliferation of the virus. That's why it's important to produce proteins derived from exogenous genes more effectively. However, the exogenous gene's productive efficiency depends significantly on the host silkworm strain.
Before the pre-modern period or Tokugawa era, raw silk was mainly produced in Kyoto and a few cities in the surrounding area. The history of Kyoto's silk fabric dates back to ancient times. However, its production started flourishing after craftsmen who sought refuge from the Ōnin-Bunmei wars began gathering and resuming their work in Kyoto's Nishijin District. A while after, these craftsmen who made Nishijin weave became one of the leading consumers of raw silk in Japan. However, most of the silk they used was white thread imported from China during the Ming and Qing dynasties.
A resurgence in domestic raw silk production took place after 1685, which had somewhat declined. When the Edo Shogunate decided to block what it felt were more than necessary imports of white thread and put import restrictions in place, this policy effect had become evident by the beginning of the eighteenth century.
The weavers of Nishijin were using great amounts of raw silk produced in Japan; silk-reeling and sericulture spread from Japan's Chūbu region to the Tōhoku and Kantō areas. Notably, production thrived in Ueno, Iwashiro, and the Tōsandō region of Shinano, making it gradually spread to outlying areas, where it became an essential source of income for farming families not being able to earn a living from agriculture alone. This made it become a cottage industry, a side business that could be pursued during slack seasons in farming.
The process of conducting silkworm farming, noted by the revered early nineteenth century, required much attention in order to match the hatching of young silkworms with the new foliage budding that had to be later fed to the larvae, but it could only be before the formation of flowers. The mulberry acreage expansion took the form of collecting and planting mulberry seeds or another layering process known as toriki.
The distribution of land dedicated to mulberry fields reflected the growing importance of the plant for silk production. Mulberry fields occupied about 14 percent of all agriculturally available land in 1904 and grew to around 24 percent by 1933
When it comes to raising silkworms, what the family has to first do is grow enough mulberry trees to feed the silkworms. After that, they produce a supply of silkworm eggs from the previous year's crop or purchase them. The eggs are placed on large, flat trays, usually kept in the warm farmhouse attic.
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