Frugal Innovation and Patent Analysis in Sericulture: Lessons for Sustainable Rural Bioeconomy Systems

Mónica Fernanda Suárez-Sánchez, Humberto Merritt, Carlos Victor Muñoz-Ruiz, Mauricio Suárez-Sánchez, Ernesto Oregel-Zamudio () and Sergio Arias-Martínez ()
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Mónica Fernanda Suárez-Sánchez: Centro Interdisciplinario de Investigación Para el Desarrollo Integral Regional, Unidad Michoacán (CIIDIR Michoacán), Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Justo Sierra 28, Col. Centro, Jiquilpan 59510, Michoacán, Mexico
Humberto Merritt: Centro de Investigaciones Económicas, Administrativas y Sociales (CIECAS), Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Lauro Aguirre 120, Agricultura, Miguel Hidalgo, Ciudad de México 11360, Mexico
Carlos Victor Muñoz-Ruiz: Centro Interdisciplinario de Investigación Para el Desarrollo Integral Regional, Unidad Michoacán (CIIDIR Michoacán), Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Justo Sierra 28, Col. Centro, Jiquilpan 59510, Michoacán, Mexico
Mauricio Suárez-Sánchez: Centro Interdisciplinario de Investigación Para el Desarrollo Integral Regional, Unidad Michoacán (CIIDIR Michoacán), Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Justo Sierra 28, Col. Centro, Jiquilpan 59510, Michoacán, Mexico
Ernesto Oregel-Zamudio: Centro Interdisciplinario de Investigación Para el Desarrollo Integral Regional, Unidad Michoacán (CIIDIR Michoacán), Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Justo Sierra 28, Col. Centro, Jiquilpan 59510, Michoacán, Mexico
Sergio Arias-Martínez: Centro Interdisciplinario de Investigación Para el Desarrollo Integral Regional, Unidad Michoacán (CIIDIR Michoacán), Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Justo Sierra 28, Col. Centro, Jiquilpan 59510, Michoacán, Mexico

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 22, 1-24

Abstract: Sericulture sustains rural livelihoods in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, where it provides income for women, elderly workers, and smallholder households. Yet this sector faces a critical technological divide: traditional reeling methods remain labor-intensive and uncompetitive, while industrial innovations advance along trajectories that are poorly suited to low-resource contexts. This article presents a patent landscape of silk-reeling technologies retrieved from Espacenet and PATENTSCOPE (2000–2024), comprising 212 unique records. Patents were evaluated against six criteria: resource efficiency, knowledge accessibility, durability and reparability, context adaptability, equity and inclusion, and by-product valorization. This review reveals a strong industrial bias, with most patents emphasizing energy-intensive steaming, mechanized feeding, and digital control, while only a small fraction addresses rural conditions or social inclusion. Current innovations therefore tend to marginalize traditional producers from emerging bio-based value chains. This study contributes to discussions on how technological design can support rural sericulture, highlighting the need for resource-efficient, modular, and socially inclusive solutions. Future research should extend patent analysis to mulberry cultivation, silkworm breeding, and by-product recovery to fully integrate sericulture into the circular bioeconomy.

Keywords: frugal innovation; technology transfer; rural livelihoods; sustainable value chains; innovation policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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