A worker at an intelligent automated sericulture production line owned by Jiangsu Canyuan Zhongye Silkworm Seed Co Ltd in Hai'an [Photo/WeChat account: hafbwx]

Hai'an – a county-level city in Nantong in East China's Jiangsu province renowned as the hometown of cocoon silk – is able to maintain fast growth in related sectors thanks to continuous advances in the silkworm farming business.

Although young, Jiangsu Canyuan Zhongye Silkworm Seed Co Ltd kept pursuing first-rate technology, driving development of the industry along with other innovative companies.

Canyuan Zhongye recently put an intelligent automated sericulture production line into operation only three years after its founding. It innovated how mulberry leaf fields are managed, breeding process controlled, and silkworm eggs incubated.

According to Sun Huibin, deputy manager of the company, at least 25 workers were previously needed to keep spreading mulberry leaves across baskets (a special kind of split-basket for silkworm rearing). But now it takes only about eight seconds each time, and requires only one technician and four assistant operators; more than a five-fold increase in efficiency. Silkworms lay eggs on a special paper and up to 45 papers of silkworm eggs can be produced together.

In addition to the silkworm egg hatching base, the company’s other eight silkworm breeding centers are also steel-structured and use multi-layer, movable platforms.

Next year, Canyuan Zhongye will adopt a smart system for monitoring and forecasting for disease and pests. It will also be able to automatically analyze soil nutrients.

Different mulberries will be planted to feed silkworms in different growth phases.

The company will add four to five sets of smart devices within three years, increasing the number of seeded papers per year from 100,000 to nearly 500,000, according to Sun.