Choose the right planting method and you can achieve prosperity and increased income

Editor's note: For farmers, what matters most is what to plant in the fields: plant the right crop and you can get rich; plant the wrong one and a year of hard work may be wasted. Right or wrong is decided by the market. Adapting to market demand and planting the crops the market needs is the direction for adjusting the planting structure. Correctly grasping the pulse of the market tests the leaders in getting rich - the village cadres' sensitivity and foresight toward the market. Today we will look at the stories of several village cadres leading villagers in adjusting their planting structure.

Yan Zaiyong: The planting wisdom of a "tobacco fanatic"

A place quietly changes because of one person, and one person persists for the long term because of a place.

Yan Zaiyong, a plain farmer born in the 1970s; Huahongping Village, Tujie Town, Weining County, Guizhou Province, a place full of poetry yet impoverished.

Yan Zaiyong, once a rural substitute teacher, carpenter and large-scale flue-cured tobacco grower, is now the village director of Huahongping Village and the "bellwether" on the villagers' road to prosperity.

A skilled wealth-builder busy with planting

In the autumn of 1997, Yan Zaiyong became a rural primary school substitute teacher at Jiaodingshan Primary School in Tujie Town (then called Tujie Township). The pay was meager, but Yang Zaiyong worked diligently for 5 years.

Some people say rural substitute teachers are poorly paid and have little future, but Yan Zaiyong did not think so. He felt he gained a great deal in those years, years like attending university, which forged his courage to dare to think and dare to act.

In early 2002, Yan Zaiyong began the arduous road of starting a business and getting rich. At first, Yan Zaiyong and his wife raised cattle and pigs, and at one point had dozens of cattle and sheep, large and small. Because household expenses were too high, life still could not make ends meet.

Seeking development according to local conditions, Yan Zaiyong discovered based on the local climate and soil that Huahongping Village was suitable for growing flue-cured tobacco. He himself was a skilled tobacco grower, and within a year his family's annual income doubled.

Growing flue-cured tobacco is a technical job. No matter who asked Yan Zaiyong for help, he was happy to help. He said that helping others was also learning techniques, and passing on the skills he learned to others was also a very happy thing.

Under Yan Zaiyong's leadership, nearby villagers also gradually began growing flue-cured tobacco with him to increase their income.

Every spring, Yan Zaiyong walked around the fields to check each household's farming situation. He often told the villagers not to wait, rely on others, or ask for handouts, but to rely on their own hands to hold up their own sky.

In 2011, Yan Zaiyong both raised livestock and grew flue-cured tobacco, becoming a well-known "tobacco fanatic" for miles around, and through farming and breeding became the village's leader in getting rich.

Elected director of Huahongping Village

In 2014, Yan Zaiyong was elected village director to widespread acclaim, and he felt the burden on his shoulders had grown heavier.

As soon as he took office, Yan Zaiyong led the village committee in clarifying development ideas, developing flue-cured tobacco cultivation according to local conditions, and developing a distinctive economy.

Under his guidance, many villagers began growing flue-cured tobacco and fruit forests. Now the village adds new tobacco-growing households every year, and the tobacco-growing area increased from 1,800 mu a few years ago to 2,180 mu in 2016, increasing output value by about 1.1 million yuan.

Not only that, Yan Zaiyong also cared about the development and production of the village's impoverished households.

In 2014, Yan Zaiyong helped Group 3 of Huahongping Village coordinate funds to establish the "Xiongying Livestock Farm" professional cooperative. In 2015 the farm began to take shape, and in 2016 the farm already had about 40 pens, dozens of cattle and more than 160 pigs. The farm has broad market prospects and has driven local villagers to increase income and get rich.

Driven by the livestock farm, many villagers used land and grassy hills to grow corn and other crops to feed cattle. Now every household raises two or three cattle.

Leading villagers to grow oil tea

Ten thousand mu of tobacco fields surge with golden waves, oil tea flowers bloom across the hills.

Walking into the more than 10-kilometer stretch of Changliangzi in Tujie Town, large numbers of wild oil tea trees grow across the slopes and ridges. Whenever spring warms and flowers bloom, ten thousand mu of oil tea vie in beauty, forming a splendid landscape.

Standing in the wild oil tea planting base of Tujie Town, there are scenes of labor with people coming and going everywhere. Some villagers working at the base are busy weeding the oil tea seedlings, while others are busy fertilizing the tea trees, bustling with activity.

The 400 mu of oil tea in Huahongping Village was successfully planted under Yan Zaiyong's leadership.

Yan Zaiyong introduced that the oil tea industry chain is long and its comprehensive utilization value is high. In addition to selling tea oil, tea seed cake can be sold as feed to local farmers at 1.2 yuan per jin. In addition, many deep-processed products remain to be developed, and agritourism can also be developed.

As for the prospects of wild oil tea, Yan Zaiyong is full of ambition. He hopes to make the village's oil tea industry bigger and stronger.

Yan Zaiyong said: "Next, the village will establish an oil tea planting cooperative, select and promote new oil tea varieties through a combination of long-term and short-term approaches, extend the oil tea industry, vigorously promote the transformation and upgrading of the oil tea industry, build a new, green and environmentally friendly oil tea industry, radiate and drive the whole village to grow the oil tea industry, and promote farmers' prosperity and increased income."