Kapangan, Philippines: Hundreds of white mulberry trees on the mountain slopes deep in the northern Philippines' Cordillera region are changing not just the landscape but also helping transform the image of a poor farming town.
Up until a few years ago, the upland villages of Kapangan, a town of 18,000 people in Benguet province, were known as one of the country's largest cultivation areas for marijuana.
"We've started something to erase that tag," said Roberto Canuto, Kapangan's mayor. "We're determined to be known as something else, perhaps the silk capital of the country."
Perfect alternative
Canuto said some farmers started growing mulberry trees, the main food of silk-producing worms from China and Japan, after sericulture was introduced in nine of Kapangan's 15 villages in late 2004.
"We're expanding the mulberry plantation to accommodate more farmers willing to go into silkworm operations," he said.
Many farmers started taking an interest in silk after trials produced about 25 kilos of raw silk that sold for $50 (Dh183.7) per kilogramme early this year.
"This could be the perfect alternative to marijuana. This could give us extra cash without having to take any risks," said Wilbur Teofilo, a leader of a farmers' cooperative in Kapangan that is upgrading 11 "rearing houses" and building nine more to raise raw silk production to 250 kilos every two months this year.
Fe Donato, an official from the Fibre Industry Development Authority, said the silkworm project could produce as much as 2,000 kilos of raw silk every year once operations expand in two years time. This could bring in an extra 4 million pesos (Dh350,788) for the farmers.
Reluctant to admit
Most farmers are reluctant to admit they used to cultivate marijuana before they ventured into sericulture but it is common knowledge that the illegal crop was cheap and profitable and relatively easy work.
In its 2008 International Narcotics Control Strategy report, the United States' State Department said marijuana had regained popularity in the Philippines and the drug was also being exported to Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and Malaysia.
New cultivation sites
The report, citing data from the Philippines' Dangerous Drug Board (DDB), had identified at least 60 cultivation sites in the country's northern mountain regions and on the troubled southern islands of Mindanao, Jolo, Basilan and Tawi-tawi.
DDB Chairman Anselmo Avenido said about 20 new cultivation sites had been discovered since the start of the year even though security forces uprooted 2.5 million plants in 2007.
Avenido said the presence of Maoist-led guerrillas and Islamist militants around most of the cultivation sites had complicated the government's efforts to eradicate marijuana sites.
