Lezhi, Sichuan: Using silkworms to paint a new picture of rural revitalization

“What we call silkworm excrement is actually the feces of silkworms. Some people ask, can feces be used as medicine? Of course!” On April 7, Sichuan Tongshi, Lezhi County, Ziyang City, Sichuan Province Within Tongsida Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Tongsida Bio), chief engineer Fan Pingyuan was very excited when he talked about the in-depth development and utilization of sericulture resources.

“We independently invented a method to extract ‘1-deoxynojirimycin’ from silkworm excrement, and obtained this natural substance using a new process of ‘combined extraction, separation and purification’.” Fan Pingyuan said, This substance is currently internationally recognized as a “zero-harm” biological agent for the prevention and treatment of diabetes.

Lezhi County has a long history of developing the sericulture industry. “There are communes all over my hometown, and there are mulberry gardens everywhere. There are 20,000 silkworm mothers, and there are eight seasons of silkworms a year.” Marshal Chen Yi’s hometown of Lezhi has now built a modern sericulture industrial park of 10,000 acres in the core area. In August 2022, Lezhi was awarded the title of “China Sangdu” by the ChinaSilkAssociation, making it the first and only county-level city in the country to receive this honor.

How does technology support the high quality development of the sericulture industry? In this regard, the author conducted a visit.

Build a modern silkworm industrial park

This year, in order to accelerate the comprehensive development of the modern sericulture industry, Lezhi took the construction of sericulture parks as a starting point, cooperated in depth with Southwest University, and relied on leading enterprises to build an intelligent silkworm breeding factory and a silkworm feed processing plant. At the same time, nine companies including Sichuan Hongqi Silk Co., Ltd. and Sichuan Derenyuan Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd. are encouraged to extend the development of upstream industries such as sericulture planting and rough processing. Tongshida Biological and Sichuan Merson Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Merson Pharmaceutical) Industry) and other 6 industrial enterprises develop high-end downstream industries in the sericulture industry chain, promoting the formation of “mulberry-silkworm-cocoon-silk-silk-clothing” and “silkworm excrement-paste chlorophyll-chlorophyll copper sodium salt-phytool-sitosterol- There are more than 10 industrial chains such as “Nojirimycin-tailing feed”.

“The traditional sericulture model is technologically backward and difficult to scale. In order to promote the iterative upgrading of the sericulture industry, we are using scientific and technological means to focus on the future development direction of sericulture. In short, we are to make modern sericulture in Lezhi County The industrial park has been built more modernly.” Du Guosheng, director of Lezhi County Sericulture Bureau, said that new technologies such as intelligent breeding, soil testing and formula fertilization are currently used in the park , can reduce the use of simple chemical fertilizers and pesticides by 30%. “It used to take 50 workers to raise 300 silkworms, but now with professional mechanized equipment, only five workers can do it,” he said.

“Silkworms and mulberries are full of treasures. For example, from mulberry trees, we can get mulberry huang, mulberry, mulberry leaves and other Chinese medicinal substances…” In the sericulture culture popularization base of Merson Pharmaceuticals, talking about sericulture culture, Zhang Minzhong, the company’s chairman, had a twinkle in his eye.

Industry-university-research cooperation to develop new products

The high-quality development of Lezhi’s sericulture industry is inseparable from the supporting and leading role of local high-level talents. Yang Minzhong is one of the “leaders”. As an “old scientific researcher”, Yang Minzhong attaches great importance to the industry-university-research cooperation between the company and universities and scientific research institutes. “If we want to develop new products, professional scientific researchers play a mainstay role.” He said.

Starting from August 2022, under the guidance of the Lezhi County Economic, Science and Information Bureau, Merson Pharmaceuticals will carry out industry-university-research cooperation with Xihua University and Aarhus University in Denmark, and actively develop a series of mulberry enzyme products. “Merson Pharmaceuticals has vigorously developed functional foods and biological antibacterial products based on sericulture resources through technical cooperation with universities and scientific research institutes, laying an important innovation foundation for the high-quality development of related industries.” Director of Ziyang Municipal Science and Technology Bureau Ling Yongjun said.

Wu Peng, director of the Organization Department of the Lezhi County Party Committee and deputy leader of the County Party Committee’s Talent Work Leading Group, said that currently the county has introduced new talent policies such as the “Lezhi County High-Level Talent Introduction and Cultivation Methods” based on county development needs and key industry layouts. , carried out in-depth the “Fengqi Ziyang·Zhihui Shuaixiang” series of talent recruitment activities, successfully introduced more than 1,000 professional technical and business management talents, and relied on platforms such as postdoctoral workstations and provincial enterprise technology centers to actively combine resource advantages and talents Advantages are transformed into development advantages.

AAA

Disclaimer:

Disclaimer: Some of the texts, pictures, audios, and videos of some articles published on this site are from the Internet and do not represent the views of this site. The copyrights belong to the original authors. If you find that the information reproduced on this website infringes upon your rights, please contact us and we will change or delete it as soon as possible.