Spring tea helps build wealth through entrepreneurship; small tea leaves achieve big dreams

Spring is the season when all things revive, the beginning of the tea plant's annual growth, and also the key season when tea accounts for a large proportion of the year's total output and is of good quality. Usually spring tea output accounts for 40%-50% of the whole year, and its output value exceeds 50% of the whole year. Therefore, we must attach great importance to spring tea production.

After the tea plant goes through winter dormancy, by spring the nutrients accumulated in the plant reach their highest level. In addition, spring has abundant rainfall, mild climate and few pests and diseases, and these constitute the conditions for high yield and high quality of spring tea. Spring tea begins in April and ends in mid-to-late May. In just over 1 month, 50% of the year's tea must be picked. Time is tight and the task is heavy. In addition, this is the busy farming season. If arrangements are improper, it is easy for new shoots to grow large and become old, directly affecting the quality of spring tea. Let us now look at a case of spring tea bringing wealth.

"Thanks to entrepreneurship training, the quality of the spring tea produced by my family this year has improved greatly, and it has also sold for a good price. With 18 mu of tea, income increased by nearly 10,000 yuan compared with last year." On August 19, Yang Yonglong, a one-child household and major tea grower in Chunwei Village, Heping Town, Zhangping City, Fujian Province, happily told reporters, "I am very grateful for the government's help, which allowed me to realize my entrepreneurial dream at my doorstep."

In the spring of this year, Yang Yonglong's new tea finally reached the market. Because the tea quality was good, his new tea price was nearly double that of others. Others sold at 100 yuan per jin, while his sold at 180 yuan. From spring tea alone, his family earned a net income of more than 36,000 yuan. In fact, Yang Yonglong's entrepreneurial path was not smooth sailing, but full of ups and downs.

He had served as a soldier in his early years and returned home after being discharged in the autumn of 2000, married and had children. At that time, because the child was still young, his wife could only stay at home to look after the child. He was the only laborer in the family, so he could only grow some rice and occasionally do odd jobs to get by. Over a year, income was only more than 3,000 yuan. Such income was not much for a family, and life was very hard. In order to change this situation, he kept thinking hard about what industry he could develop to make money, and make more money?

In the spring of 2003, Yang Yonglong saw that many farmers in neighboring townships had become rich by growing tea, so he took his family to reclaim barren hills and tried planting 3 mu of Shuixian tea. During development, he encountered technical problems from time to time, such as tea leaves turning yellow, slow growth and poor tea-making skills. Not only did he fail to make money, he almost lost money. One day in May 2003, when he went to the Heping Town Family Planning Office to apply for a one-child honorary certificate, during conversation the cadres of the Heping Town Family Planning Office learned that he had encountered many problems in tea production. The family planning office cadres promptly contacted technicians from the town agricultural technology station and tea experts from neighboring townships, and from time to time invited them to visit and provide technical guidance and help to Yang Yonglong in tea production, cultivation and processing. In the autumn of 2005, Yang Yonglong became increasingly proficient in the cultivation, management and processing techniques of Shuixian tea, and had also explored a set of experience suited to himself. That year, his family's tea achieved both increased yield and increased income, obtained a good harvest, and embarked on the road to moderate prosperity.

After tasting the benefits, Yang Yonglong became more confident and expanded his planting scale every year. In 2007, Yang Yonglong led the establishment of a tea cooperative, driving 12 family-planning households to grow tea together and "join forces to build wealth." In June last year, village officials also helped Yang Yonglong arrange participation in an entrepreneurship training class held in Zhangping City, which greatly improved his tea cultivation, management and processing level, allowing him to increase income considerably from the same per-mu yield. Now, with strong support from the Party committee and government of Heping Town, Yang Yonglong grows tea as an entrepreneur, planting 18 mu of tea. He has not only realized his own entrepreneurial dream, but also brought 15 jobs to family-planning households in the town.

Now that Yang Yonglong is rich, he has not forgotten his fellow villagers, nor has he forgotten to give back to society. Yang Yonglong told reporters that he wants to further develop a "hundred-mu Shuixian tea garden," build his family tea enterprise into a local leading enterprise, enhance market competitiveness, better play a demonstration and driving role, and lead more farmers to become rich and well-off through developing tea production.

Spring tea is the tea with the highest character and the highest selling price of the year. Starting a business in rural areas is like tasting a sip of spring tea; you need to savor it carefully and slowly feel its inner flavor. The same principle applies to rural wealth-building projects; you also need to ponder and think them over slowly.