Silkworms give Philippine farming town a makeover

By Manny Mogato

KAPANGAN, Philippines (Reuters) - Hundreds of white mulberry trees have started to cover mountain slopes deep in the northern Philippines' Cordillera region, changing not just the landscape but also making over the image of a poor farming town.

Up until the early 2000s, the upland villages of Kapangan, a vegetable growing town of 18,000 people in Benguet province, was widely known as one of the country's largest cultivation areas of an illegal plant -- marijuana.

"We've started something to erase that tag," Roberto Canuto, a public attorney in the province who was elected mayor in 2007, told Reuters. "We're determined to be known as something else, perhaps, the silk capital of the country."

Canuto said some farmers have started growing mulberry trees, the main food of silk-producing worms from China and Japan, after sericulture was introduced in nine of Kapangan's 15 villages in late 2004.

"We're expanding the mulberry plantation to accommodate more farmers willing to go into silkworm operations," he said, adding many farmers got excited after initial trials produced about 25 kilos of rawsilk, sold at $50 per kilogram early this year.

Wilbur Teofilo, leader of a 33-member farmers' cooperative in Kapangan, said they have started upgrading 11 "rearing houses" and building nine more to raise rawsilk production to 250 kilos every two months this year.

"We can easily produce about 500 kilos of rawsilk every two months when our operations go on full blast," Teofilo said, showing a box containing thousands of fresh cocoons, leftovers from last month's production.

"This could be the perfect alternative to marijuana because it would also take six to eight months to harvest mulberry leaves that would be fed to hungry worms. This could give us extra cash without taking any risks."