Silk Training Days in Argentina
At the National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA), Engineer Francisco Pescio gave two free silk training sessions at the INTA AMBA Headquarters, located in the Buenos Aires District of Ituzaingó.
The first day was dedicated to a workshop on "Silkworm Breeding", with the participation of silk producers who have a productive enterprise underway and producers interested in starting the activity.
The second day focused on "Sericulture as a pedagogical tool". Teachers of different educational levels participated in this workshhop; they acquired knowledge on the incorporation of the sericulture activity in different school areas and shared experiences and success stories of sericulture in the classroom.
The coordinator of the SEDA Project opened these training days and presented the activities and objectives of the Project within the framework of the ADELANTE Programme.
Training sessions in primary production and silk fibre processing, focused on value addition in the textile chain, were also carried out at the Faculty of Agronomy (FAUBA) and at the INTI Textile Research and Development Center.
In FAUBA, professors Claudio Basso, Santa Dobler and Margarita Guzmán started the day with a theoretical workshop on silk breeding and marketing that culminated in a demonstration of materials and distribution of larvae in the third stage for those who wanted to start their practices. The training day ended with a visit to the sericulture laboratory to learn about the equipments used by professionals for the breeding of worms and the practices of genetic improvement on the breeding of silkworms. In addition, the entrepreneurs were able to visit the mulberry grove and observe worms in their fifth stage encapsulating.
In the INTI laboratories, professors Hugo Enciso and Horacio Alvarez carried out workshops on the transformation of textile material as well as on bleaching and coloring with natural dyes. The participants had the opportunity to learn about the history of silk from the early stages up to its applications in the modern textile industry. Products manufactured in different parts of the world were exhibited, as well as some of the literature on sericulture available at the library of the Textile Centre.
