Black Wheat Sold Three Ways to Widen Income Channels
Reading note: In late June, the wheat harvest has wrapped up. This year, wheat in some areas encountered continuous rainy weather during the critical harvest period, affecting wheat quality. Because of fusarium head blight and excessive imperfect grains in some wheat, policy-based grain procurement could not play its role. At the same time, grain has enjoyed bumper harvests year after year, and China is gradually opening its domestic market to the WTO. All these pressures are beginning to show one by one in this summer's wheat market.
Granaries full, every grain purple-black! This year, the chromium-rich black wheat planted in Guantao County, Hebei Province, again achieved a bumper harvest. More than 30,000 mu of black wheat, with total output reaching 16 million kg.
In the field of black wheat cultivation, Guantao County has served as the national "vanguard" and has its own "say." The first black wheat variety approved in Hebei Province, and also the first chromium-rich black wheat variety approved in China - "Jizi 439" - settled in Guantao, and Guantao enjoys exclusive variety management rights nationwide.
Not only that, Guantao County was the first to carry out product research and development for black wheat, extending and strengthening the black wheat industry chain. It developed more than 30 products in eight series, including whole black wheat flour, oatmeal, and mooncakes, sold across the country. Black wheat has become a "gold mine for enriching the people" for Guantao farmers.
Selling Grain
New Variety "Activates" Per-Mu Returns
"Now, 1 jin of ordinary wheat sells for about 1.2 yuan, while the black wheat we grow can sell for 3 yuan per jin," said Niu Zhenhua, a large black wheat grower in Linzhai Village, Luqiao Township, Guantao County. Growing 1 mu of black wheat increases income by more than 1,200 yuan compared with growing 1 mu of ordinary wheat. If deep processing is carried out, the added value of black wheat is more than 10 times that of ordinary wheat.
More than ten years ago, Niu Zhenhua saw a news report in a newspaper that black wheat can lower blood sugar in diabetic patients. He brought seeds back from the Institute of Cereal and Oil Crops of the Hebei Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences and established the first Huaye Manor black wheat production and development base on the yellow earth of his hometown. From trial planting on his own 5 mu in the first year, to mobilizing surrounding relatives and friends to sow 50 mu in the second year, to more than 5,000 mu planted through land transfer last year, black wheat thus took root in Linzhai Village and surrounding villages. Under Niu Zhenhua's demonstration and leadership, this year the county's harvested black wheat area has reached more than 30,000 mu.
In June 2005, Niu Zhenhua founded the Huaye Manor black wheat production and development base and registered the commercial trademark "Huaye Manor" for black wheat. Niu Zhenhua said that the base was initially established as a black wheat research base of the Institute of Cereal and Oil Crops of the Hebei Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, providing data for its project on the agronomic traits of chromium-rich black wheat in the southern Hebei region, the cold resistance, drought resistance, and pest and disease resistance data of black wheat, as well as changes in trace element content in different years and yield performance in different years.
Selling Leisure
Black Wheat Becomes a Scenic Sight
"Chromium-rich black wheat is a food that effectively controls post-meal blood sugar. Now Guantao has exclusive variety management rights for it. Using this advantage, we are building a national high-quality black wheat cultivation base. We are also using black wheat resources to expand and strengthen rural tourism and promote dual income growth for farmers," said Xie Jijiong, secretary of the Guantao County Party Committee.
This year, during the black wheat harvest, Guantao County held the second Black Wheat Field Festival. Visitors personally experienced the unique charm of black wheat. The person in charge of the Black Wheat Field Festival activities introduced that during this year's festival, activities were held including a thousand citizens hiking through the black wheat farm, a black wheat health forum, trips by writers and photographers, special investment promotion, an old-style wheat harvesting and threshing experience themed "rediscover memories, retain nostalgia," and on-site experience of making black wheat grain paintings.
Beside National Highway 106 and the county marker in Guantao County stands a 13.5-meter-high sign for the China Chromium-Rich Black Wheat Seed Source Base. This is the first sign for a specialty agricultural planting base erected by Guantao County to promote the upgrading of the county's black wheat industry, build a China chromium-rich black wheat seed source base with local characteristics, and publicize high-quality chromium-rich black wheat products.
"By holding the Black Wheat Field Festival, we strive to build the Guantao Black Wheat Cultural Tourism Festival brand, further expand the visibility and influence of Guantao tourism, and at the same time extend and strengthen the black wheat industry chain. With the goal of building a green ecological agriculture demonstration base, we will form the good momentum that for Chinese black wheat, one looks to Hebei, and for Hebei black wheat, it is in Guantao," said Wu Linxiang, director of the county's Culture, Radio, Television, News, Publication and Sports Bureau.
Selling Products
Grain Can Also Be Sold in New Ways
"Guantao County is located in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, on the Yellow River alluvial plain, with fertile soil and relatively high organic matter content. Guantao's geographical and climatic environment provides unique growing conditions for chromium-rich black wheat. The black wheat produced has a good taste and a special wheat aroma. It is not only rich in major elements but also rich in a variety of trace elements essential to the human body. Its nutrient element content is 4-6 times that of ordinary white wheat products. Testing by the Grain Quality Supervision and Testing Center of the Ministry of Agriculture shows that chromium-rich black wheat contains 1.916 mg/kg of trivalent organic chromium, 1,424.0 mg/kg of magnesium, and 91.0-203.95 ug/kg of selenium," said Gu Zechuan, director of the Guantao County Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Bureau.
To verify the health value of Guantao chromium-rich black wheat and whether eating black wheat products can effectively control blood sugar rises in patients with high blood sugar, the Guantao County Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine and the Guantao County Huaye Manor black wheat production and development base jointly established an expert group for experimental prevention and treatment of diabetes with black wheat, composed of multiple experts. Huaye Manor provided patients free of charge with black wheat products worth 15,000 yuan, and the hospital of traditional Chinese medicine invested 150,000 yuan to provide 26 diabetic volunteers free of charge for three months with meal preparation, testing, observation, and individualized diabetes treatment. The phased experimental report on the blood sugar-lowering effect of Guantao black wheat concluded that, according to comparative data, after black wheat products were used as the staple food of diabetic patients, the blood sugar change curves generally showed a downward trend, with post-meal blood sugar control being especially ideal.
Guantao Deputy County Head Zhang Guoping introduced that Guantao County cooperates with large domestic food enterprises and uses traditional stone-mill techniques to research, develop, and produce more than 30 foods in 8 series, including black wheat stone-milled whole flour, wheat kernels, oatmeal, wheat grits, steamed buns, dried noodles, pastries, and mooncakes. They are sold across the country and enter chain supermarkets in major cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shijiazhuang, and are favored by people with the "three highs," obese people, and the elderly. The county also cooperates with relevant enterprises to develop series products such as black wheat soy sauce, black wheat red yeast vinegar, black wheat health wine, black wheat beauty cosmetics, and black wheat health foods, so as to expand and strengthen the black wheat industry that enriches the people and strengthens the county.