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Countries |  |
Bulgaria
Brief summary about sericulture in Bulgaria: During the period 1950-1990 in Bulgaria due to the strong governmental support the prices of the raw silk, fabrics and garments produced were comparatively cheap and competitive at the world market, thus with an average annual production of 1200-2000 t fresh cocoons Bulgaria had occupied the first place in Europe and 7 th –8 th place in the world. However, after 1990, with the change of political and economical system the cocoon/silk production have declined sharply to a critical stage . By the same time Bulgaria still has very high potential for sericulture development due mainly to the big social importance of sericulture as a source of occupation and additional incomes for the rural population, availability of well developed sericultural science, comparatively rich genetic resources, own production of high quality silkworm eggs, the interest of the foreign private investors from Italy, France, Germany etc. in Bulgarian silk industry, the opportunity to provide subsidy for increase the fresh cocoon price through the European commission, availability of more than 1.3 million mulberry trees and more than 10000 farmers households, having facilities and experience in the cocoon production. The strategy for Bulgarian sericulture revival aims to reach an annual production of about 500 t of fresh cocoons, 60 t raw silk, quality 2A–4 A, 10 t grade-less raw silk and 30000 silk handcrafts, to open 8000 new working places and to provide annual incomes to the sericulture farmers in amount of 3 500 000 EUR . The above mentioned targets could be achieved through creation of a new country network for silkworm larvae distribution, cocoon purchasing, processing and silk reeling, gradual renovation of mulberry plantations to good varieties, low stem, high density, garden type, easy for harvest, and labour saving, promotion of the autumn silkworm rearing and expanding more number of demo-farms in order to increase productivity of cocoon yields per box of silkworm eggs at the national level, establishment of an effective extension service system for sericulture, opening centralized young silkworm rearing centers, establishment of comparatively bigger sericultural farms for 500 kg fresh cocoon annual production each, promotion creation of farmer's groups, for production of silk handcrafts.
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Name of Organization:
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Sericulture and Agriculture Experiment Station
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Contact Person :
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Prof. Dr P. Tzenov, director
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Postal Address :
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24 Mito Orozov Str., Vratza 3000 Bulgaria
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WEB Address :
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E-mail :
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| Tel/Fax : | +35992642221; +35992645154 |
| Mission statement : |
Established in 1896 the Sericulture and Agriculture Experiment Station -Vratza
(SAES) is now the biggest center in Bulgaria conducting various activities for sericulture industry development that is structured with four major departments such as Department of Research, Department of Extension Service, Department of Production and Department of Administration. The Department of Research is composed with 4 laboratories: mulberry selection/agronomic laboratory; silkworm genetics laboratory; silkworm selection/egg production laboratory and silkworm rearing/cocoon processing laboratory. Its main activities on research work are related to the genetic research on breeding technology for improvement of new silkworm lines/ breeds and hybrids; silkworm egg production technology; prevention and silkworm diseases and pests control; mulberry selection and cultivation; cocoon and silk processing; sericulture economics and management. The Station maintains more than 140 mulberry varieties and silkworm over 200 lines , which have been collected from internal and external resources and bred for further improvement of their genetic characters. Up to date, 19 origin al commercial silkworm hybrids were developed by the Station, 10 of which had been genetically screened for field adaptation test and selected as recommendable varieties for commercial cocoon production at the field level. All the relevant research work on various areas of sericulture and other necessary activities such as supply of silkworm eggs/mulberry saplings and training/extension service are implemented by the Sericulture Agriculture Experiment Station in Vratza in order to support sericulture farmers' cocoon production activities in the country. Even though it has been operated in a comparatively small scale, SAES-Vratza is multi-functioned to run overall integrated activities such as research and development (R & D) activities, production of raw materials such as mulberry saplings and silkworm eggs and market-oriented business activities to successfully rehabilitate its traditional sericulture industry as an economically viable sericulture industry at the regional level and /or the national level. |
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Name of Organization:
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Agricultural University of Plovdiv
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Contact Person :
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Prof. Dr D. Grekov-Rector
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Postal Address :
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12 Mendeleev Street , Plovdiv 4000, Bulgaria
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WEB Address :
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E-mail :
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Tel/Fax :
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+35932654300 +35932633157
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Mission statement :
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The Agronomy college, under Agrarian university of Plovdiv was founded in 1945 and now it is the biggest one in the structure of the University. There are the following five departments in its structure, namely Botany , Genetics and Breeding , Animal Husbandry , Farming and Crop Science . The Agronomy college of Plovdiv Agrarian University, which is situated at the center of one of the major sericulture area of Bulgaria has more than 50 years experience in research, training and extension in the sericulture, as well as highly experienced research and technical staff. Agronomy college has also close scientific cooperation in the field of sericulture with the Sericulture Experiment Stations in Vratza and Harmanli, Thracian University in Stara Zagora , Forestry University and Central Veterinary Research Institute in Sofia . In the college functions a special Extension service department having an efficient network in South – East Bulgaria . The Agronomy college is authorized by the government in conducting short/medium/long term training courses in all the fields of agriculture, including sericulture. 5 PhD students(one from Greece ) developed and defended successfully their thesis in the field of sericulture at the Agronomy college. The college maintains its own mulberry and silkworm germplasm, used as valuable source for selection-breeding work. The college produces mulberry saplings, silkworm eggs and works in cooperation with the silk reeling factory “Svila” P.L.C. in Haskovo city in the field of improvement of cocoon/silk processing technologies.
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