Silkworms spinning families out of poverty

Picking mulberry leaves to feed silkworms is part of the daily routine for Huang Jianhua and his wife in Napo county in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. Selling cocoons to a silk factory has increased the annual income of Huang's family by 55,000 yuan ($7,330).

People in the county have been encouraged to raise silkworms to increase incomes in the past three years as the adequate rain and sunlight in the area are suitable for planting mulberry on a large scale.

The mulberry plantations in the county reached 8,600 hectares this year, involving about 15,500 households, including 5,363 poor households, official data show.