Gastrodia cultivation helps a farmer's daughter onto the road to prosperity
Living deep in the mountains, unable to use the internet, and nearly forty... In Group 1 of Youfang Village, Zhaowan Township, Gucheng County, an ordinary middle-aged farmer's daughter like this learned to grow wild Gastrodia, and her very first trial planting brought in several thousand yuan, which became a much-told story among the villagers of remote Zhaowan Township.
Early in the morning on July 7, 40-year-old Liu Xiaojun chopped up the fungal substrate for Gastrodia, planning to go up the mountain to sow wild Gastrodia seeds. "Last year I only did a trial planting on 3 fen of land, and earned several thousand yuan," Liu Xiaojun said. This year she wants to expand the Gastrodia planting area to one mu, and expects to increase her income by nearly 50,000 yuan.
16 years ago, Liu Xiaojun, a girl from Neijiang, Sichuan, met her husband while working in Henan and came with him to Zhaowan Township. "The roads were not connected, and the family's circumstances were poor," Liu Xiaojun said. Her husband's family had only four mu of poor farmland, which produced just one crop a year, barely enough for the family's own use. After marrying, Liu Xiaojun gave birth to two daughters. To care for the children, her husband continued to work away from home, her parents-in-law took odd jobs everywhere to supplement the household income, and she alone kept a small shop to get by.
Zhaowan Township is located in the high-cold mountainous area of northwestern Hubei, which is very suitable for the growth of the precious Chinese medicinal herb Gastrodia. In earlier years, dried Gastrodia had already sold for more than 100 yuan per jin, and many people in Zhaowan went up the mountains to dig wild Gastrodia and sell it to outside dealers. "Digging Gastrodia can only earn you money for a while, and after that there will be none left to earn," Liu Xiaojun said. Gastrodia has an extremely low natural reproductive capacity, and because of unchecked digging, there is not much wild Gastrodia left in Zhaowan.
In 2014, while restocking goods for her small shop, Liu Xiaojun heard people on the bus say that someone in Shiyan specifically taught people how to grow Gastrodia. "Zhaowan has such good resources, why shouldn't I learn the technique and grow Gastrodia at home to supplement the household income?" As soon as Liu Xiaojun got home, she asked someone to look up relevant information online, and then called the planting farm in Shiyan for consultation. In April of that year, Liu Xiaojun, carrying 5,000 yuan, went alone to Shiyan to learn Gastrodia cultivation techniques. "Pollinate in spring, harvest the fruit in June, and plant in the ground a week later. Dig the tubers in the first month of the following year, and by autumn you can harvest commercial Gastrodia," Liu Xiaojun said. At the planting farm in Shiyan, she worked for free to learn the technique, and it took her only a week to master the skills of growing Gastrodia.
Liu Xiaojun then bought germination fungi and Armillaria fungi at the planting farm, and gathered wild Gastrodia from the mountain to take home for pollination, fruit collection, and propagation. In the autumn of last year, Liu Xiaojun's trial planting of wild Gastrodia on 3 fen of land was a great success; more than 400 jin of fresh product sold out in a rush at prices of 80 to 130 yuan. "Growing Gastrodia depends above all on being careful," Liu Xiaojun said. Gastrodia seeds are smaller than grains of sand, so when pollinating and collecting, you must guard against wind, otherwise the yield will suffer. In addition, during the growth process, the soil moisture must be controlled, and the soil must not be too wet.
The reporter, together with staff from the Municipal Poverty Alleviation Office, followed Liu Xiaojun up to the Gastrodia planting site. In the dense forest, only the traces of clearing left from sowing could be seen. Liu Xiaojun said that the Gastrodia is still growing underground, and this year's harvest will not come until September. At present, she is taking advantage of her spare time to sign up to learn internet skills, and in the future she also hopes to sell this wild Gastrodia through the internet to all parts of the country. "A capable person like this, who develops a local industry by learning techniques from elsewhere, should be promoted throughout the city," said Chen Yuquan, director of the Municipal Poverty Alleviation Office. This model relies on local natural conditions such as climate and soil, and has advantages such as quick results and being easy to replicate, giving it high promotional value in industrial poverty alleviation. In addition, this approach can bring surrounding poor people into participation, ultimately forming one's own industry and brand, which helps impoverished people escape poverty more quickly.