Agriculture Ministry pushes forward with sericulture project

BANGKOK, March 16 (TNA) -- The Queen Sirikit Department of Sericulture (QSDS) has joined hands with the Border Patrol Police (BPP) to initiate the sericulture heirs project in school, with an aim to preserve and pass on knowledge on sericulture to the new generations. Permanent Secretary of Agriculture and Cooperatives Theerapat Prayoonsitti presided over the inking ceremony of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the "Sericulture Heirs Project" in schools, in honour of HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, between QSDS, Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry, and BBP. Mr Theerapat said the ministry has come up with a policy to better develop agricultural-related careers with an aim to increase income and lift the living condition of farmers, turning them into Smart Farmers or professional farmers, noting that sericulture is one of the occupations which can generate a good enough income for farmers. He said the MoU is targeted to help promote sericulture among students and youths in schools, helping them to become more knowledgeable in the field, so that they would be able to turn their knowledge into profit during their time in school as a way to help their parents and to ensure that they will have a stable job after finishing school. Moreover, the project would help to create sericulture heirs, meaning the knowledge would be preserved and passed on to the later generations. QSDS Director-General Ms Sudarat Vajragupta Laovichaya, meanwhile, said QSDS has planned to create sericulture heirs in three levels totaling 628 persons, including 571 students in schools, 36 students at the university level, and 21 person from the community level in 2017. Participants in the project would learn of the whole system of the sericulture industry, starting from the creation of a learning-base of sericulture in school, where the heirs network would be introduced to the farmers with folk wisdom in the field in order to learn how to properly raise and process sericulture produce. (TNA)