Water dropwort farming set Zheng Weiying on the road to prosperity

The water dropwort industry in Lingao has made the villagers' lives more and more prosperous.

Just as dawn broke, the water dropwort base at the foot of Bocang Ridge in Heshe Town, Lingao County was already bustling with activity, with more than 10 villagers busy at work: some picking water dropwort, some squatting by the irrigation ditch washing the roots, tying them into small bundles with string and piling them up.

"This tiny water dropwort may not look like much, but it is the village's 'money tree' for getting rich. Most of the villagers' living expenses depend on it, and after growing water dropwort for two or three years you can build a house." Zheng Weiying, a villager from Bocang Village, told the reporter cheerfully that since November last year, 5 mu of water dropwort had brought him more than 50,000 yuan in income.

According to reports, Zheng Weiying has grown water dropwort for seven consecutive years and is the village's specialist water dropwort grower. Three years ago he had already built a small Western-style house in the village.

About an hour later, Zheng Weiying had picked more than 100 bundles of water dropwort and carried them to the roadside, handing them to the vegetable trader who was waiting there.

Counting the bundles, packing, loading the truck, settling the accounts... Zheng Weiying took a stack of banknotes from the vegetable trader and slowly counted them: 130 bundles, 650 yuan!

"One mu of water dropwort yields about 4,000 jin per crop. Calculated at 5 to 6 yuan per jin, one mu is expected to bring in 20,000 yuan, and with two crops a year, growing 5 mu of water dropwort, after deducting costs, the annual income is more than 100,000 yuan." Zheng Weiying counted on his fingers as he did the sums for the reporter.

"Usually I don't know how to do anything else, I only know how to grow water dropwort. This year I want to expand by another 2 mu to increase my income." Zheng Weiying said that at the end of last year, the government helped the villagers successfully register the Bocang Ridge water dropwort trademark, and at present the villagers' enthusiasm for growing water dropwort is running high.

Bocang Village is a well-known "water dropwort village", and the water dropwort industry has made the villagers' lives more and more prosperous.