Luo Jun returns home to start a business, leading the masses to common prosperity
Processing mulberry leaves, feeding young silkworms together with workers, loading the young silkworms onto trucks to transport them to silkworm farmers' homes, picking and sorting cocoons, cleaning the cocoon rooms…… Recently, at the Qunfu Planting and Breeding Farmers' Professional Cooperative in Zhaide Tun, Huaiquan Community, Huaiquan Town, Luocheng Mulao Autonomous County, this writer saw Luo Jun constantly busy, earnestly running his silkworm-raising business.
Luo Jun is a native of Shedong Tun, Guogan Village, Huaiquan Town, and spent many years working away from home. In 2013, when he returned home to visit relatives, he found that because many people had gone out to work, much land had been left idle. So he decided to return home to develop planting and breeding, leading the masses to shake off poverty and become prosperous together.
The cooperative's annual income from mulberry planting and silkworm raising exceeds 10 million yuan
“There is a lot of idle land around Zhaide Tun, water sources are abundant, and transportation is very convenient, so the conditions for developing planting and breeding are relatively mature.” Luo Jun said. After investigation, he emptied his family savings, borrowed money from here and there with his wife, and mobilized relatives and friends, and in 2013 established the Luocheng Qunfu Planting and Breeding Farmers' Professional Cooperative in Zhaide Tun.
“The cooperative develops the mulberry silkworm industry in the form of 'company + base + farmers' and with the masses contributing land as shares.” Luo Jun said the cooperative follows the integrated development path of “silkworm, mulberry, cocoon, silk, and sales” and has established an integrated platform for silkworm egg incubation, co-rearing of young silkworms, and rearing of grown silkworms.
In 2013, when the cooperative was first established, it had only 8 member households. After regularly inviting technical personnel from the county agriculture bureau and sericulture station to teach members mulberry planting and silkworm raising techniques, the cooperative's advantages became increasingly obvious. Many farmers from several surrounding townships such as Huaiquan, Tianhe, and Jian'ai voluntarily joined the cooperative, and the number of members and the area of mulberry fields increased year by year. At present, the cooperative has grown to more than 500 member households, the members' mulberry planting and silkworm raising area has reached more than 2,000 mu, and the annual income from mulberry planting and silkworm raising exceeds 10 million yuan. The cooperative base has built more than 2,000 sq m of young silkworm co-rearing rooms and grown silkworm rearing rooms, with a mulberry field area of more than 250 mu. Each year it co-rears more than 30 batches and more than 2,500 sheets of young silkworms, and raises 12 batches and 240 sheets of grown silkworms annually, with an output value of more than 1 million yuan.
Luo Jun said that he also leases land to plant several dozen mu each of sugar cane and sugar oranges, using silkworm droppings as organic fertilizer. At the same time, he is learning to develop mulberry leaf tea and mulberry wine, developing under-forest economy such as raising chickens under mulberry groves, constantly exploring the development of a circular economy, striving to extend the industrial chain, and working to further expand and strengthen the cooperative and drive more people to prosperity.
Silkworm raising achieves scientific and technological management and care
“In developing planting and breeding, technology is key.” Luo Jun said that in addition to inviting agricultural technical professionals to teach at the cooperative base, he also often learns techniques such as young silkworm disease prevention and scientific silkworm raising through the internet, going out for inspections, and consulting materials.
“At first I did not raise them well, so I led my employees to Yizhou and other places to learn from experience. I found that others had invented a ground rail-type manual rope-pulled mulberry feeding device for rearing grown silkworms. Later, on that basis, I made improvements and designed automated silkworm-raising facilities such as an electric mulberry feeding device and an electric mounting device, achieving scientific and technological management and care, effectively saving labor and improving work efficiency.” Luo Jun said.
In the grown silkworm rearing room at the cooperative base, this writer saw that employees, using the electric mulberry feeding device, fed 5th-instar silkworms mulberry leaves and completed the task in less than 10 minutes.
Helping impoverished people shake off poverty and become prosperous
“Being rich alone does not count as being rich.” Luo Jun said that contributing to helping the impoverished people in his hometown shake off poverty is his wish.
Luo Jun said that many poor farmer households, upon learning that developing mulberry silkworms could increase income, wanted to plant mulberries and raise silkworms, but had no money to buy silkworm eggs. After learning of the situation, he decided that as long as poor households wanted to plant mulberries and raise silkworms, he would sign preferential agreements with them, first providing silkworm eggs to the poor households, and the poor households would pay after selling the cocoons. In addition, he also gave poor households epidemic prevention medicines, chemical fertilizers, and other items free of charge, solving the problem of insufficient funds for poor households to raise silkworms and become prosperous.
“In order to completely eliminate the worries of impoverished people about raising silkworms, our cooperative also helps poor households buy policy-based mulberry silkworm breeding insurance free of charge. At the same time, throughout the whole process before, during, and after cocoon production, we provide free door-to-door technical follow-up services to poor households, reducing the risks and production costs of silkworm raising for impoverished people, and ensuring that poor households can raise silkworms, raise them well, and have income.” Luo Jun said that at present, the cooperative has signed agreements with more than 50 poor households, and through developing mulberry planting and silkworm raising, poor farmer households are gradually shaking off poverty and becoming prosperous.
At the same time, left-behind women in nearby villages and hamlets can also work as silkworm workers at the cooperative base, increasing their family income and achieving employment at their doorstep. Luo Jun said that the cooperative hires silkworm workers and pays by the piece; if they work well, they can earn more than 200 yuan a day.