Conservation and breeding of natural silkworm (Bombyx mori L.) in Indonesia

Abstract

Natural silk farming is a series of silk agro-industry activities from mulberry cultivation, silkworm maintenance, cocoon production and processing, silk spinning and weaving. Many supporting factors for the development of natural silk in Indonesia. However, the natural silk industry is getting worse with high import values. The main problem is the low quality of silkworm egg seeds. The Forest Research and Development Center (P3H) is a government agency authorized for natural silk commodity development. This study aims to describe the efforts of conservation and breeding of natural silkworm in Indonesia. The material used for conservation is the germ plasma silkworms collection owned by P3H. Whereas for breeding activities, silkworms used are produced from conservation activities. Conservation is carried out using eggs of the same type of strain in the germ-plasma, while breeding is done by crossing various types of moths. The result of conservation is the maintenance of 58 germ plasma silkworms. While breeding results are a type of hybrid caterpillar PS 01, which has a production advantage compared to commercial types CS 03. The dissemination of results such as hybrid PS 01, which has a comparative advantage needs to be improved to help overcome the problem of Indonesian silkworms.