Residents of arid and semi-arid lands in Kenya can mint up to Sh2500 per tree in one month by rearing silk worms on the naturally growing acacia trees.
Silk worms are some of the smallest ‘livestock’ that have been reared for centuries globally, but Kenya is yet to realize the high potential in this textile industry raw material.
The small animals feed on mulberry, acacia, lettuce, among other trees.
Mulberry is the commonest feed, but given that arid and semi-arid regions have acacia trees, it will not be a challenge to farmers.
According the Nairobi-based International Centre for Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE), one-three meter acacia tree can comfortably support at least 200 silk worms. The organisation buys the yarn from farmers, therefore, no struggling in looking for the market. A mature worm takes three to four days to form cocoon of silk around itself. From this one tree, a farmer would harvest at least 0.375 kilogrammes of silk in three to four days.
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Breeding silkworms. Courtesy
On average, 0.375 kg of silk would yield about 2.5 mitres of material. The cost of one mitre of the material ranges between Sh900 and Sh950. This means a farmer can harvest between Sh2,375 and Sh2,500 from one acacia tree.
With leaves of just 10 acacia trees, a farmer can harvest at least Sh95,000 after one month from just 1,000 silk worms. Unfortunately, the livestock do not live for more than two months. Silk worm eggs take between six and 20 days to hatch, depending on the provided conditions.
They mature after 26 days when they start spinning soft creamy white cocoon from the salivary glands. The slippery white fluid hardens on contact with air.
The worm will turn into moth, and a female will mate and lay about 500 eggs. Males die almost immediately after mating while females do so after about five days.
If the eggs are too many to hatch at once, a farmer can refrigerate them. Hatching takes place within a week if the eggs are kept in temperatures of between 78 degrees and 85 degrees. In cool temperatures, they can hatch in two weeks.
ICIPE has an established training centre for famers at its Nairobi headquarters targeting women from drier regions.
The feacal material from the creatures is rich organic manure.
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Farmer milking his cow. The cold weather experienced in the coutry at the moment has affected milk production in several parts of the country. Photo courtesy.
