Wax gourd planting fuels rural revitalization
2022-06-02 19:26:18
Yaochong Village is located in the mountainous area of Tanping Town, Jiahe County with over 590 households and 1,746 villagers.
Due to the remote location and inconvenient transportation, the villagers have earned their living by working in the nearby coal mines for the past 30 to 40 years.
However, most villagers have lost jobs over the past decade as nearby coal mines closed. Serious land abandonment and low economic added value of agricultural production forced villagers to seek jobs out of hometown.
During leadership elections and changes of committees in Jiahe County in the second half of 2020, Li Wensheng, who started business outside and often gave back to the village, was jointly elected as the Party secretary and head of the village committee by the Party members and villagers.
After knowing Li Wensheng’s idea of developing agriculture to benefit the villagers, the resident work team of Jiahe County actively communicated with him to grasp the situation and invited agricultural technical experts from Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of Jiahe County to give instructions.
Experts suggested that wax gourd planting should be the best choice for Yaochong Village considering the soil fertility, soil composition determination and “microclimate” characteristics of the village.
Based on the technical instruction of experts and soil condition reports, Li Wensheng decided to develop wax gourd planting as the dominant industry to promote the collective economic growth and benefit the villagers. To this end, he actively made use of previous social network and signed a supply and marketing order with an agricultural company in Shanghai after several rounds of negotiations.
In March 2021, Li Wensheng led villagers to reclaim 160 mu (about 10.67 hectares) of abandoned land for wax gourd planting.
Although 160 mu (about 10.67 hectares) of ripe wax gourd went on the market in October 2021 and was acquired by the company of Shanghai, it still made small profits.
And then agricultural experts in the county were invited by Li Wensheng to provide on-site guidance and carefully analyze the reasons for the low profits. Finally, it was concluded that the key mainly lay in technical difficulties, including poor breeding in the early stage, overclose seedling planting, poor drainage, disease and insect disasters, and too many wax gourds in one single vine, etc.
Now that the crux has been identified, Li Wensheng encouraged the villagers to develop 400 mu (around 26.67 hectares) of barren hills and slopes on the basis of the original farmland, and vigorously advance the wax gourd planting.
In March 2022, Li Wensheng hired a professional surnamed Tang from Guangdong Province with high salaries to teach and guide the villagers step by step from soil cultivation to wax gourd harvest. Yaochong Village is expected to increase the collective income of more than 300,000 yuan in one year.
In addition, Li Wensheng also plans to transfer over 1,000 mu (about 66.67 hectares) of land to plant navel oranges, red grapefruits and other fruit trees based on the advantages of forest resources, which can offer jobs to hundreds of people and increase the villagers’ income by more than 2 million yuan per year. It is expected that the village collective income can rise by over 600,000 yuan per year from 2027.
