The Department of Agriculture (DA) has come up with a development plan for the local fiber including those for the barely tapped silk which has the potential to spur rural village growth.

DA and its attached agency Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR) are looking into the development of machines that can raise mass production of silk for the export market.

A program up to 2010 is looking into the development of a bark peeler machine for silk’s use for Japanese paper mulberry. Another development area is the performance trial of a village-type reeling machine that will improve production efficiency for this fiber.

The improvement of processing of silk should be backed up by the production of this fiber.

Silk production may be improved through the introduction of hybrids of silkworm. A genetic resource improvement is eyed in order to produce commercial silkworm hybrids adaptable in certain highland and lowland areas.

DA will also study feeding management specially in the dry months and the development of artificial feeds for silkworm.

As China has developed sisal which has become an alternative to abaca in the world market, government is looking into sisal and its possible uses.
There are other indigenous fibers that the Philippines can maximize commercialization of with their unique propagation under the country’s tropical climate. These are fiber materials like banana, maguey, salago, and pineapple.

For banana and pineapple, the need is on modification of banana and pineapple fibers as substitute to glass fibers for composites (as substitute to fiber glass in automotive or aircraft accessories). This will require studies on value-adding through processing, on purification of banana and pineapple fiber as a source of high-value pulp, and on degumming and softening of banana fiber for textile use.

There should be a decorticating machine for pineapple fiber while increase in production is also needed to maximize use of existing pineapple fiber processing machines.

Maguey can also be used as material fiber for composites. But there is no existing technology yet for wet laid non-woven production for maguey, according to DA. Government also seeks to evaluate the biochemical properties of maguey sap for medicinal uses.

For salago, there is a need for value-adding processing technologies including one for turning salago fiber into a clean pulp for specialty paper and other non-woven products.

Abaca remains to be the Philippines’ biggest fiber product with export reaching to 0 million yearly. But even this fiber needs development on disease-resistant varieties, waste management, spindle stripping machine and twining machine, and soil and water management in order to tap a potentially big export market.