By Kerry O'Neill | SEPALI Madagascar team member
News from The Field
After a month of rice harvesting and holiday festivities, SEPALI farmers are eager to start making silk! The SEPALI team has implemented an intensive schedule in order to provide training to the new breeders. Over the past month, SEPALI has provided extensive training workshops to 45 new breeders, 29 of which will start rearing silk worms this month. The SEPALI training workshops include a half-day overview of the silk rearing process, a demonstration in the field with hands on activities, and a personal follow-up session at each farmer’s land. In addition, each new breeder receives a detailed, 40 page training manual about the silk rearing process and all associated rearing equipment including 3 to 5 nets, 5 spinning baskets, and 2 chrysalide baskets.
The Fast Track…
Fenozara Justin, a relatively new member of the SEPALI community, has taken the fast track to success. After joining the group in October, Fenozara prepared a tree nursery and planted an additional 10 trees from trunk cuttings on his property. Even before his first formal training, Fenozara Justin jumped into larval rearing headfirst. By January, the 10 trees were already big enough to rear larvae and by the end of the month, Fenozara had collected and produced over 160 chrysalides from the forest, supplied a total of 66 chrysalides to other group members, and produced over 450 cocoons. Fenozara recently achieved formal SEPALI membership when he finished planting his 250 seedlings, but he will not stop there. The new SEPALI star has already completed his first rearing training, has become an expert at finding volunteer larvae, is rapidly learning the rearing process, and continues to plant trees. We are sure to continue to see great things from Fenozara Justin.
Growing by Leaps and Bounds
SEPALI would also like to welcome the 7 new members who joined our community this month. Ambinanitelo welcomed 4 new members over the past month, Marovovonana welcomed 2 new members, and a new farmer in
the forest community of Ambatofotsy entered the group as well.
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