Growing colored wheat fulfills farmers' dream of prosperity

 "Nowadays people pay attention to health preservation, and dietary structures are constantly shifting toward the health-care type. The colored flour and noodles I process are rich in protein, lysine, and trace elements beneficial to the human body such as zinc, iron, selenium and calcium. They are more nutritious than ordinary flour. Although the price is half again as much as ordinary flour, they are still in short supply!" Recently, at the Dapang Grain Planting Cooperative in Sun Village, Yangtun Township, Chiping County, Shandong Province, the cooperative head Sun Dapang, while showing bags of freshly harvested black and green wheat, introduced: "Colored wheat is planted and managed exactly the same as ordinary wheat, but the price is nearly double, so one mu can earn the money of 2 mu. I can now process 100,000 jin of colored wheat each year, with profits of more than 300,000 yuan."

"Colored wheat has high nutritional value and is rich in trace elements, and the trace elements are all naturally transformed by the plant, formed purely naturally. Colored wheat also has medicinal value, with functions of resisting aphids, preventing cancer, resisting blood coagulation, as well as clearing heat, promoting urination and nourishing liver qi. It is very popular on the market!" As soon as colored wheat was mentioned, Sun Dapang perked up and opened up like a chatterbox.

Sun Dapang began growing colored wheat in 2012. At that time, the quick-witted Sun Dapang keenly realized that as people's quality of life kept improving, market demand for green foods with health benefits would grow ever greater. After research, he tried planting 40 mu of colored wheat. The following year, as soon as the black wheat was harvested, it drew people's attention, and customers came in an endless stream to place orders and learn from him. In the end, it all sold out at 1.8 yuan per jin. Sun Dapang won right away, and the colored wheat reaped a bumper harvest, earning nearly a thousand yuan more per mu than ordinary wheat.

In 2013, Sun Dapang struck while the iron was hot and transferred more than 200 mu of land to grow colored wheat on a large scale. At the same time, colored wheat is rich in trace elements and is a very good raw material for nutritious and health-care foods, with high processing added value. Sun Dapang decided to carry out deep processing of wheat, lengthen the economic chain, and lead local farmers onto the road to prosperity together. Soon, he took the lead in establishing the Dapang Grain Planting Professional Cooperative, built a stone-mill flour processing and noodle processing factory, and bought colored wheat from cooperative members at 1.8 yuan per jin. The collected colored wheat was sent to the processing workshop to be made into stone-milled colored flour, handmade colored noodles and drop noodles. After the products were launched on the market, they were very popular with consumers, achieving a win-win-win for growers, enterprises and the cooperative. At present, through the "cooperative + enterprise + farmer" model, Sun Dapang's cooperative has expanded colored wheat planting to more than 500 mu, increasing local villagers' income by more than a million.

"Old Sun really took the right path with colored wheat planting and processing!" said customer Sun Guohua, the owner of a hot pot restaurant, who was loading noodles onto a vehicle. "Noodles made from colored wheat taste good and are nutritious. Customers love to order them. The shop now has a big demand, and this time I'm ordering 2,000 jin first!"

"Now the price of our colored wheat sold as seed is 1.8 yuan. This year alone, one customer from Tianjin ordered 100,000 jin, and there are also customers from Qingdao, Linyi and other places. The cooperative's more than 500 mu of wheat is basically all booked up!" Sun Dapang introduced. "I kept 100,000 jin myself for processing, including 50,000 jin of flour and 50,000 jin of noodles, basically pre-ordered by some old customers! Colored wheat flour is priced at 4 yuan per jin, and noodles at 5 yuan. Compared with the prices of ordinary flour at 1.7 yuan and noodles at 1.8 yuan, the profit is more than double!"

"The main problem now is the small planting scale. The next step is to focus on attracting more and more farmers to join colored wheat planting, further expand the planting area, develop health-care foods that suit the market, and turn colored wheat into a big industry!" Speaking of his colorful dream of prosperity, Sun Dapang was full of ambition. Zhang Dong, Jia Cui