The blind spot of the textile economy in Razavi Khorasan; the risk of modern farming in a dry climate

Mashhad - The pilot distribution of Noghan seeds in Khorasan Razavi Khazan has started while the food supply crisis, climate challenges and the decrease in farmers' income have put the traditional chain of sericulture in dire straits.

Ambassador of Arjan - Provinces Group, Maryam Salari; Nowghandari industry in Razavi Khorasan has been more than a simple agricultural job for decades, it has been the vital artery of the textile and traditional chain of Torbat-Haidaryeh and Baig region; The land that once held the pulse of the country's silk production, but in recent years, under the pressure of inflation, the import of cheap, low-quality yarns, and the decline of the generation of old masters, its share has become smaller than in the past. These days, whispers are heard about the beginning of an experimental project: breaking the single-crop boundary of spring and transferring silkworm cultivation to the cold autumn of the dry climate of the east of the country; An effort that looks attractive on paper and in administrative reports, but on the other side there are many technical and environmental questions.

The history of autumn cultivation in Iran has always been confined to the humid regions of the north of the country, such as Gilan and Mazandaran; Areas where the autumnal equinox and rich vegetation ensure the survival of the worm without extreme environmental manipulations. On the other hand, the climate of Khorasan is known for its terrible temperature fluctuations between day and night and the dryness of Khazan. Implementing such a project in a province with hot summers and early and dry autumns, before it is a definite achievement, is a biologically risky gamble whose success will not be determined in office rooms, but in the heat of rural barns and sheds.

In addition to the physiological dimensions of silkworms, the challenge of rebuilding worn-out workshops and damaged human capital is a high wall in front of this program. Years of stopping the domestic production of Noghan eggs and excessive dependence on sending boxes from the north have dried up the skill of rearing productive larvae in the younger generation of this geography. Now that the authorities are claiming to revive the only egg production workshop in the east of the country, it should be seen if there is a real basis for turning a pilot idea into a sustainable economy, or is it going to end up with temporary budgets, and its case will also rot in the archive shelf like dozens of other projects.

At the same time, the chaotic situation of other textile products in the region, such as cotton in the Torbat-Haidaryeh plain, has sounded an obvious alarm. Farmers and farmers, who are stuck in the trap of increasing fuel, fertilizer, poison and wages, are not convinced by promises and statistical monitoring. In the following, we will examine the text of the trustee managers' conversations, an independent field expert's assessment of the risks of this decision, and the official data of the agricultural jihad about the cultivated lands of the region.

Autumnal distribution of Noghan eggs in Razavi Khorasan from the origin of Torbat Haidarieh

Raalireza Mehrabi, head of Khorasan Razavi Noghan Farming Development Department, in a conversation with Mehr reporter, announced the breeding and distribution of Noghan eggs in a pilot (experimental) way for the first time in the province and stated: This year, 30 boxes and each box is capable of 26 to 27 thousand eggs will be distributed.

The head of Khorasan Razavi Noughandari Development Department stated: In addition to Torbat Haydaria, the distribution has also started in some cities of Razavi Khorasan.

He said: In the northern provinces of the country, due to moderate conditions and the slight difference between spring and autumn, there is often an autumn distribution, but in this province, due to the temperature difference in the four seasons, we have not had an autumn distribution so far.

Stating that the eggs were sent from Rasht, Mehrabi said: After hatching for 12 days (one of the scientific stages of silkworm breeding), taking into account that the eggs of autumn silkworms are from the eggs of the current year and have not gone through the natural development process, first we shock the eggs with special laboratory methods (so-called malic acid) to start their growth.

Head of Noghan Farming Development Department, Khorasan Razavi continued: After turning eggs into worms, feeding begins until their bones are strong, and then we deliver them to Noghan Dar.

He stated that the activity of the only Noghan egg production workshop in the eastern region of the country, centered in Torbat Haidarieh, started this August, and added: This year, the amount of eggs we produced will be kept under special conditions for distribution in the next spring season.

Mehrabi stated: But by observing the temperature conditions and proper nutrition, we will be able to produce Noghan eggs from next year for autumn and winter distribution as well.

The head of Khorasan Noghan Farming Development Department Razavi said: This spring, 6,600 boxes of Noghan eggs were distributed among farmers, and finally, nearly 239 tons of cocoons were produced by Noghan farmers of this province.

He called the number of households working in the field of wool and silk in Torbat Haidarieh as 740 households and stated: If at least 2 people are active in this profession in each household, then at least 1,500 people are working in this profession.

Mehrabi continued: There were once nearly 400 silk weaving workshops in Baig city and Basak village in Torbat-Haidaria city, but now it has decreased to about 250 active units.

Head of Khorasan Noghan Farming Development Department, Razavi, in connection with the process of reviving the Noghan egg production workshop in Torbat Haidarieh, said: First, the leading Noghan farmers who raise productive cocoons should be identified.

According to him, during the 10-year closure of the Noghan egg production workshop in this region, some of these Noghan farmers died, left their jobs or are no longer able to work, and therefore accurate statistics are not available.

Mehrabi, explaining the characteristics of Noghandar Pooror, added: These people have high knowledge and work experience, and usually the cocoons produced by the parent silkworms have a lower production rate and should be purchased at a higher price.

The head of Noghan Farming Development Department of Khorasan Razavi continued: So, a contract should be signed with these people to commit to deliver a healthy cocoon, the pupa inside which has not been destroyed, to the Noghan egg production workshop, and then the conditions for converting the cocoon into a butterfly will be provided, and from the mating of the parent butterflies, F1 generation eggs will be produced and ready to be delivered to the Noghan breeders for breeding in the next season.

Harvesting cotton from 250 hectares of farms in Torbat Heydarieh city

Qadri, deputy head of the Khorasan Agricultural Jihad Organization, Razavi, in a conversation with Mehr reporter, announced the beginning of cotton harvesting from 250 hectares of cotton-cultivated land in Torbat Heydarieh city.

The deputy head of the Khorasan Agricultural Jihad Organization, Razavi, pointing out that this year 250 hectares of cotton with Varamin and Shayan varieties have been cultivated in the city, adding that 5 tons and 540 kilograms of modified seeds have been provided to cotton farmers.

He continued by saying that in order to support cotton farmers, 100 tons of nitrogen fertilizer, 25 tons of phosphate fertilizer and 15 tons of potash fertilizer have been distributed to cotton farmers at the government rate.

Qadri said: The average yield and production of cotton per hectare in the city is 3.5 tons, and the total production of this product in the farms of the city is about 900 tons.

The deputy head of Khorasan Agricultural Jihad Razavi added: The main problem of cotton farmers is the low price of cotton, which leads to economic inefficiency due to the increase in production costs.

Autumn noghandari in the dry climate of the east has a high risk

Hamid Farahmand, an expert on agricultural jihad in Khorasan, Razavi said in a conversation with Mehr reporter: Although it is interesting from an academic point of view, conducting a pilot test on 30 boxes of Noghan eggs, the danger of prematurely generalizing it as an economic strategy is to ignore the fragile ecosystem of Khorasan. We are talking about a province where the fluctuation of day and night temperature in November sometimes reaches more than 18 degrees Celsius. Silkworm has the most sensitive reaction to cold shocks, and the transformation of an organism that requires a moderate and humid climate into an autumn crop in a dry climate greatly increases the consumption of fuel and heating energy of the villagers; An expense that no one puts on paper in the first calculations.

Razavi, an expert on agricultural jihad in Khorasan, continued: The next issue that managers usually go through is the challenge of nutrition. Silkworm does not eat plastic feed; He wants live, juicy and high-quality mulberry leaves. In the fall of the eastern regions, with the start of temperature drop and the shortening of the day, the leaves of mulberry trees become lignin, dry and old, and their nutritional and protein value is greatly reduced. Feeding the larvae with a leaf that has opium-like and low fiber value directly paralyzes the silk-secreting glands, and as a result, the resulting cocoons will be thin, brittle, and lacking the standard elasticity for Baig's silking wheels.

Referring to the sensitive stage of acidification, he added: forcing the egg to break hibernation with an acid bath is a scientific protocol, but the smallest error in the acid dose or thermal timing in Rasht or Torbet-Hydria destroys the genetic foundation of the F1 generation larvae. This laboratory shock makes the losses of the second and third periods of worm sleep exponential; Where the casualty comes to the eyes of the simple-minded villager and he stays and the expenses are wasted and the time is lost. You can't hide chain failure behind the buzzword 'laboratory methods'.

Farahmand stated about the claim of identifying the leading Noghandarans: "This admission of closing the workshop for 10 years is the key to the story. In this one decade, a generational gap has happened; The technology and experimental expertise of the previous generation has been buried without documentation. It is not so simple to persuade Noghandar to give productive cocoons to the government laboratory with low-profit administrative contracts, instead of selling cocoons to a broker with quick cash. The farmer needs cash, not red tape and delayed purchases. Until the guaranteed price of the productive cocoon is double that of the normal cocoon and with instant cash settlement, no intelligent operator will spend his time on the risky work of breeding."

Razavi, an expert on agricultural jihad in Khorasan, emphasized: The reduction of sericulture workshops in Baig and Besk from 400 to 250 workshops is a serious warning sign of the decline of the bazaar. When carpet weavers and traditional workshops are unable to compete with Indian and Chinese smuggled silk threads and low-quality but cheap synthetic fibers, the temporary increase in production in the fall does not solve the problem of people's livelihood. Sustainable development means guaranteeing the sales chain; Otherwise, these pilot projects will only fill the department's performance report, not the pocketbook.

The heavy penalty of repeating failed experiences and looking insularly at the Noghandari industry

Relying only on the distribution statistics of 30 Noghan pilot boxes, without paying attention to the missing link of "economic efficiency", is a repetition of previous unsuccessful cycles in agricultural management. In an environment where the cotton industry chain as a parallel pillar of the textile industry is struggling with the liquidity crisis and price drop, it is impossible to claim that the fall season will survive without real subsidies. A farmer who has no incentive to produce 3.5 tons of cotton per hectare due to price suppression, how is he going to risk the loss of shocked larvae in semi-warm autumn rooms?

The bitter truth of Baig and Torbat Haidarieh has taken root in the shutdown of 150 silk weaving workshops in recent years. Hand silk weaving, which was the art of the nobles and identity card of this region, is caught in the trap of increasing the costs of water, electricity, gas and wages, and no specific support mechanism has been installed to compensate for its price gap with industrial and imported goods. If the ultimate goal of the implementation of the fall noughandari plans is simply to inject raw material into a market where the final buyer cannot afford it, the result will be nothing but the burden of yarn and cocoons on the hands of the producer.

Reviving the stagnant Noghan egg factory after a decade of hiatus is a tough test to evaluate the will of the government. The claim of using the leading Noghandarans to produce the F1 generation requires objective trust building; The trust that is achieved not by the promises of news conferences, but by signing cash contracts and paying the real price of the genetic value of productive cocoons. If the operator has to wait for months for the government's unstable credit lines to deliver the live cocoons, there is no doubt that the next year's eggs will suffer the fate of second-rate imported eggs in terms of quality.

Khorasan Razavi's textile industry will survive when the policy maker stops making one-sided decisions and administrative reports and sees the chain as integrated: from the provision of rich mulberry leaves and subsidized fuel in the fall, to the guaranteed purchase of cotton and cocoons, and finally to curb the smuggling of silk thread to carpet weaving workshops. The rescue of Noghandari Torbet Haidarieh is not in the miracle of acid shock to the eggs, nor in maneuvering the word pilot; Rather, it is in creating an economy in which the farmer's toil of staying up all night to keep his worms warm does not go to trading in the market.