Double-season pagoda tree helps the Loess Plateau retain soil and water while generating income

Original title: Double-season pagoda tree solves the "nine years out of ten with no harvest" problem

Wang Shuangliang tending double-season pagoda trees in the field (photo)

Wang Shuangliang:

Retired cadre of the Discipline Inspection Commission of Fenxi County, Shanxi Province, former secretary of the Party branch of Zaoping Village, who led villagers in planting double-season pagoda trees on the Loess Plateau, helping farmers increase income while preventing soil erosion.

San Nong Zhi Tong Che comprehensive report: "The pagoda buds are fragrant, life is good, and the days of poverty run away." In 2014, the Xinhuai Agriculture and Forestry Professional Cooperative was established in Zaoping Village, Fenxi County, Shanxi Province. Zhang Linsheng became one of the first members. That year he received more than 6,000 yuan in land share dividends from the cooperative, and in 2015 he received more than 8,000 yuan. "This year the pagoda buds can be harvested on a large scale, and our family's annual income is expected to reach 20,000 yuan," Zhang Linsheng said. "We can finally take off the label of impoverished household."

Before 2014, however, Zhang Linsheng's family was still a "standard" impoverished household. "Among the nine people in my family, two are disabled. The ten mu of dry farmland depend entirely on me and my daughter-in-law to cultivate. In a good year, one mu can produce at most five or six hundred jin of corn, just enough for food. Our children have to go out to work to supplement the household income, and we barely get by."

Zhang Linsheng's family escaped poverty thanks to the new career Wang Shuangliang took up after retirement. On May 9, in Zaoping Village, Fenxi County, Shanxi Province, the reporter saw double-season pagoda trees growing vigorously across the hills, and the once barren mountains and bare ridges were covered in green. Among the pagoda tree groves, the reporter met Wang Shuangliang, who was instructing farmers on planting: "Fenxi County is located in the Luliang Mountains, on the Loess Plateau, with crisscrossing ravines and drought in nine years out of ten. Planting double-season pagoda trees can solve farmers' problem of no harvest in nine years out of ten. Plant once and benefit for a long time; it is suitable for planting and promotion."

Wang Shuangliang is a retired cadre of the Discipline Inspection Commission of Fenxi County and once served as secretary of the Party branch of Zaoping Village. After several decades, seeing that local people still depended on the weather for their livelihood, barely got by, and struggled on the poverty line, he felt deeply anxious. By chance, he saw on television that the Yuncheng City Forestry Bureau was promoting a type of double-season pagoda tree suitable for growing on dry land, which could both improve the ecology and steadily increase farmers' income. "The double-season pagoda tree is a new type of pagoda tree that can grow two seasons of pagoda buds in one year. Pagoda buds, also known as 'rutin,' are a traditional Chinese medicinal material that dilates blood vessels, prevents stroke, and specifically treats cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Market demand is very large," Wang Shuangliang said.

In April 2014, Wang Shuangliang joined with 32 farming households, raised 2.44 million yuan in funds, and voluntarily initiated the establishment of the Xinhuai Agriculture and Forestry Professional Cooperative, with farmers participating through land shares. By the end of April 2016, the cooperative's membership had grown to 314 people, of whom 211 were impoverished people, and there were also 18 disabled people.

Wang Shuangliang introduced that this year the cooperative has planted 3,500 mu of double-season pagoda trees, grown 50 mu of seedlings, intercropped 130 mu of red peony and 30 mu of Chinese honeylocust under the forest, and domesticated 25 mu of northeast hazelnut. In July this year, the pagoda buds produced by 1,000 mu of double-season pagoda trees will enter the harvest period, and each jin can sell for about 10 yuan, with an average income of more than 5,000 yuan per mu; if further processed into pagoda bud tea, each jin can sell for 80 yuan, and the income per mu can reach 40,000 yuan, with estimated comprehensive income reaching more than 40 million yuan. Next year, after all the pagoda buds from 3,500 mu of double-season pagoda trees and the understory crops are harvested, total income can reach 140 million yuan. The cooperative expects to take three to four years to strive to drive local farming households to develop more than 10,000 mu of double-season pagoda tree planting and expand cooperative membership by more than 2,000 households. It aims to truly realize a one-stop double-season pagoda tree industry chain integrating breeding, grafting, planting, harvesting, storage, processing, sales, and distribution, achieving both ecological and social benefits. (Reporter Xu Hua, text/photo)

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