Mulberry planting and sericulture

Located at a subtropical monsoon climate area, Hechi city enjoys a favorable climate to grow mulberry for sericulture, making it the country's major producer of silkworm cocoon. For  11 consecutive years, the coverage of mulberry field and the yield of silkworm cocoon of the city have ranked first in Guangxi province. 

Sericulture has become a pillar of Hechi's agricultural industry. The city currently has 31 enterprises engaging in silk producing and processing, among which 29 are above designated size realizing an output value of 1.812 billion yuan ($274.68 million) from January to August of 2017, with a year-on-year increase of 19.92 percent. In 2016, the output value brought about by sericulture was 4.5 billion yuan, bringing benefit to 230,900 peasant households.

To increase the output of sericulture and bring more income to peasants, the city has adopted measures from different aspects.

Hechi has been putting efforts to improve production technologies and promote them among peasants. As of August, 2017, the city had put on 337 training courses for 16,300 people and released 29,000 copies of materials on sericulture. Advanced equipment was also introduced to the peasants, helping them improve production efficiency and relieve labor shortages.

The city attached importance to the development of recycling agriculture by making a comprehensive utilization of mulberry and silkworm resources. Peasants were encouraged to grow edible fungi on mulberry brunches and make the mulberry fruits into beverages. The planting area of mulberry in Hechi exceeds 2,000 mu (133.3 hectares). There are also five sightseeing mulberry orchards for leisure.

In addition, the city also built cultural parks and a silk culture corridor to demonstrate the sericulture history, silkworm species, and the production process of silk and silk products, aiming at developing the tourism industry featuring sericulture.

The development of sericulture not only brought financial benefits to local residents, but also aroused the attention around the country. Some conferences related to mulberry planting and sericulture also chose Hechi as their venue.