A thematic meeting on silkworm cocoon resource protection was held in Hai'an, a county-level city administered by Nantong, on Dec 1.

In recent years, Hai'an has attached great importance to developing its sericulture industry. At present, the city has about 4,666 hectares of mulberry fields producing 8,000 tons of high-quality silkworm cocoons.

To cope with the continuous decrease in mulberry field area and silkworm cocoon production due to urbanization, Hai'an is exploring a new moderately large-scale and intensive management mode of sericulture and cultivating a group of family farms for silkworm breeding.

So far, there are 159 sericulture family farms and 79 specialized cooperatives in the city, bringing prosperity to nearly 60,000 farmers and practitioners.