SEEDBANKS AND EXPERIMENT STATIONS

The FIDA maintains seedbanks and experiment stations with a collection of all species and varieties of abaca and other fibercrops throughout the country and those found in foreign soils for future studies and comparative commercial research. These gene banks or germplasm collection has become the country's show window of numerous fibercrops that are now or in the future be the subject of economic feasibility studies and utilization researches as well as commercial exploitation.

LABORATORY FACILITIES

The Fiber Technology and Utilization Laboratory conducts tests and development and adoptive researches on the extraction, characterization and utilization of fibers. The Fiber Technology and Utilization Division (FTUD) is responsible for developing system and technology in improving fiber extraction process, improving fiber products and developing/adopting new fiber uses. Among the services offered are: physical testing of fibers, morphological testing of fibers, fiber identification, chemical analysis of fiber, pulp test, performance evaluation of fiber extraction machine, specific fiber research as requested, seminar on handmade papermaking, bleaching and dyeing of fibers.

SERICULTURE CENTERS

Two Municipal Sericulture Centers in Region I and CAR include a rearing house of young silkworm eggs for distribution to farmers, a processing building and a broiler house. The centers, envisioned to be operated by farmers' cooperatives under close supervision of FIDA's technical staff, are equipped with modern facilities from Korea.

SILKWORM EGG MULTIPLICATION CENTERS

The breeding cum multiplication center at UPLB which is being managed and operated by experts from the university in collaboration with FIDA serves the silkworm egg requirement of Luzon farmers. Two silkworm egg multiplication centers one each in Davao and Iloilo, were established to cater to the silkworm egg requirements of farmers in the Visayas and Mindanao. A research project in the development of silkworm line is continuously being conducted in the breeding center at UPLB.

DEMO CENTERS

These facilities house tools and equipment for village-level processing such as handloom weaving apparatus, reeling device, re-reeling device and twisting device. The following activities are conducted in the centers: stifling, reeling, degumming, twisting, weaving, dyeing, and printing which were adopted from low-level technologies from other countries.