Gastrodia cultivation sets Liu Fengkui on the road to prosperity
He is the well-known gastrodia cultivation expert of Zhenba, the person in charge of Zhenba's largest gastrodia breeding base, and the guide who has led nearly 200 households out of poverty toward prosperity. Filled with curiosity and questions, this writer recently walked into Liu Fengkui's gastrodia breeding base in Hongshi Village, Xiaoyang Town, Zhenba County. The room full of gastrodia flowers was truly spectacular, a sight that dazzled the eye. He and his cooperative partners were concentrating intently on pollinating sexual gastrodia, and in a spare moment I chatted with him about his gastrodia "road to prosperity."
"Born to have a bond with gastrodia"
Hongshi Village, Xiaoyang Town, Zhenba County, where Liu Fengkui lives, is located deep in the Daba Mountains. The village has an average altitude of 1000 m, with high mountains and deep ravines, scarce arable land, and barren soil. The villagers' main source of income is working away from home, the impoverished population accounts for 30%, and escaping poverty and achieving prosperity has always been the villagers' dream.
"After graduating from high school I engaged in traditional cultivation of shiitake mushrooms and wood ear fungus, and also raised black-bone chickens, but none of it was very successful. Maybe I was born to have a bond with gastrodia, because in the end I became a 'gastrodia man.'" When talking about the gastrodia industry, Liu Fengkui's joy was written all over his face. Liu Fengkui had never thought about gastrodia cultivation before, but as the state's support for agriculture continued to increase, he saw the enormous potential of developing an agricultural industry. In addition, having engaged in traditional cultivation such as shiitake mushrooms, he had some experience in spawn cultivation. After investigation and feasibility study, Liu Fengkui set his sights on gastrodia cultivation and decided to take the path of large-scale cultivation and development.
In early 2008, he raised funds from various sources and built a new spawn cultivation room. He cultivated more than 500 hills of gastrodia using traditional methods. Because he had underestimated the difficulties of gastrodia cultivation and lacked cultivation techniques, the first year of gastrodia cultivation ended in failure...
"Science and technology are the magic key to success"
Facing failure, Liu Fengkui did not shrink back. He went to the Hanzhong Agricultural Research Institute and studied gastrodia cultivation techniques for 3 months. Having acquired professional cultivation knowledge, Liu Fengkui felt as if he had obtained a treasure and immediately returned to the village to put it into practice. In 2009 he cultivated 1000 hills of wild gastrodia and achieved a successful harvest. Sales revenue exceeded 100,000 yuan, and net income reached more than 40,000 yuan. He could not help but deeply exclaim, "Science and technology are the magic key to success." When the surrounding villagers saw the considerable benefits brought by Liu Fengkui's gastrodia cultivation, they followed him in learning gastrodia cultivation techniques. He organized the villagers to study together and practice together, and went to the cultivation sites free of charge to provide guidance. Gradually he became the village's leader in gastrodia cultivation. Under his leadership, in 2010 15 households cultivated more than 5000 hills of gastrodia, and net income reached 200,000 yuan.
When he read in gastrodia cultivation books that sexual propagation cultivation could reduce costs and increase yields, he devoted himself wholeheartedly to researching sexual propagation of gastrodia. Constrained by his knowledge and lacking relevant equipment and techniques, gastrodia sexual propagation encountered obstacles and a "bottleneck." So he went to Hanzhong to hire experts to come to the village to provide on-site technical guidance, and also went to Hubei to purchase equipment. Through unremitting efforts, the gastrodia sexual propagation experiment succeeded, and at this point the cost of each hill of gastrodia was reduced by about 30%. In 2011 he provided pollen gastrodia to the surrounding villagers free of charge. That year he supported 8 households in cultivating more than 8000 hills. Because costs were reduced and yields increased, by the end of the following year net income from gastrodia reached more than 300,000 yuan.
"Only when everyone is prosperous is it true prosperity"
"Only when everyone is prosperous is it true prosperity. Making the cooperative strong and bringing more money to the members' pockets is Liu Fengkui's greatest wish. In early 2013, he actively responded to the call of the Xiaoyang Town Party Committee and Government to develop industries and help farmers increase income. Under the guidance and assistance of departments such as the county Development and Reform and poverty alleviation departments, he established the Xingmin Gastrodia Cultivation Professional Cooperative, innovatively adopting the new agricultural development model of 'cooperative + base + farmers.' The county Development and Reform Bureau supported gastrodia drying equipment worth 100,000 yuan, and the county Poverty Alleviation Office coordinated more than 200,000 yuan in funds to help the cooperative accelerate the development of the gastrodia industry and help more people increase income and achieve prosperity. By 2015 the cooperative had more than 100 members, a cultivation area of 35,000 hills, and an annual output value of more than 20 million yuan. It has now developed into the largest gastrodia cultivation base in the entire county.
"Seeing that sexual gastrodia propagation is developing so well and large-scale cultivation covers such a wide area, is there no risk at all in growing gastrodia?" Faced with this question, Liu Fengkui told this writer: "Because we operate with integrity and provide quality service, we have won customers' trust and praise. We have already signed purchase and sales contracts with many businesses, and our sales channels are smooth. After the cooperative uniformly purchases members' output, it uniformly sells it to places such as Hubei and Sichuan." Next, he will continue to expand member coverage and teach the gastrodia cultivation techniques he has mastered to more people. He plans in 2016 to drive the cultivation of 50,000 hills, strive to push annual production capacity and output value past 4 million yuan, and lead more people to prosperity.