Silk From Cashew Trees?

CHAN:
And in Indonesia, one village has found a way to turn ordinary cashew nut trees into a thriving silk business. Here's more on this story.

STORY:
An Indonesian village near Yogyakarta has turned to cultivating rare silk cocoons, in order to boost its income during the yearly drought season.

The village has acres and acres of cashew nut trees that produce one of Indonesia's famed exports. But it also has pests that love cashews. The pests spin countless gold cocoons all over the trees.

Then a local farmers organization started cultivating the rare gold cocoons, for organic silk, the same silk that is sought after in Japan, to make its famed kimonos.

[Sogiyanto, Cashew Farmers Assoc.]:
"Before we only take the fruit, but now we can get two products. First we have the fruit and second we have the cocoon. So now we get double income."

The farmers cultivate the cocoons without any artificial means to ensure they get wild silk. Each tree can produce approximately four and a half pounds of gold cocoon, which is worth about $4.50 per pound to the farmer.

The Yogyakarta royal family even helps oversee the silk workshop.

[Princess Pembayun of Yogyakarta]:
"There is no mass production here, because mass production means bringing in big machinery here. We don't want to ruin the process; we want it more of an artistic approach. We prefer to use simple spinning process to keep the artistic touch on the silk yarn."

To ensure ongoing production and high standards, the royal family has set aside more than 125 acres of royal property for cashew trees and to produce this famous silk.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• ntd
• ntdtv
• news
• silk
• cashew
• trees
• yogyakarta
• cocoons
• gold
• production
• royal
• produce
• indonesia
• village

[ariestwo1]

thats pretty smart of them