BEIJING, March 24 (Xinhua) -- In Yizhou District of Hechi City, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, sci-tech enabled modern sericulture and silk production are helping the locality step onto a path of high-quality industrial development.
As one of the largest silk cocoon production bases across China, Yizhou boasts 26,400 hectares of verdant mulberry fields with an annual output of 109,000 tonnes of silk cocoons.
Generating about 5.6 billion yuan of incomes each year, local sericulture with 19 consecutive years of national leading fresh cocoon output is palpable in spurring development of the district's industries.
When walking into local silk reeling workshops, people can always spot automated equipment which replaces traditional handcraft and improves productivity and silk quality, especially after 64 technological patents and nearly 70 advanced devices are applied.
For instance, Yizhou District invented machines and tools that can automatically place mature silkworms onto cocooning tools or extract cocoons and its application rate of advanced techniques including co-breeding of small silkworms, and fresh cocoon reeling also ranks high among national comparable localities.
Such transformation is inseparable from the vibrant sci-tech and innovation boosters that emerge under the supports from Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
Targeting building a mulberry cocoon and silk industry cluster with 100-billion-yuan annual output value, the district has improved full-industrial chain construction and introduced advanced technologies from home and abroad to facilitate high-end oriented, intelligent and green development of local silk industry.
With the bustling looms operating at a high speed, silk weaving by computer numerical control (CNC) machines of local giants not only filled in the blank of producing patterned full-silk Zhuang brocade, but also helped local premium raw silk become designated raw materials for international luxury brands.
Photo shows the first production line of patterned full-silk Zhuang brocade, a type of indigenous fabric famed for durability, exquisiteness, creative design and intricate patterns, in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region goes into operation. (Source: Integrated Media Center of Yizhou District)
Through comprehensive use of sericulture by-products, mulberry leaves, branches, and silkworm excrement are widely used in local food, medicine, fodder, organic fertilizer and other sectors, forming industrial chains of a circular economy.
Furthermore, Yizhou District launched multiple silk culture travel routes by integrating mulberry cocoon and silk industry with ecological tourism, injecting new impetus into local economy.
In future, the district will continue to bolster sci-tech innovation and grow local silk industry to create a new chapter of economic development.
(Edited by Duan Jing with Xinhua Silk Road, duanjing@xinhua.org)
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