The Cherry Queen Leads Us onto the Road to Prosperity
Peach Blossom Festivals, Sunflower Festivals, Buckwheat Flower Festivals... In recent years, these refreshing flower festivals in Xiage Town have built up quite a following. And in about another week, cherry picking in Yangpengtou Village, Xiage Town, will begin. These leisure and sightseeing projects have not only increased farmers' incomes and shaped Xiage Town's "Four Seasons of Flower Seas" layout, but also greatly boosted the development of tourism in our county.
Behind all of this is a technical expert with close ties to the work: her name is Hong Li, deputy director of the Horticulture Institute of the Taizhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences and a senior agronomist. She was among the first batch of science and technology commissioners dispatched by the Taizhou Municipal Government to the city's less-developed areas, and has received honors including "Provincial Outstanding Science and Technology Commissioner" and "Taizhou Municipal Meritorious Science and Technology Commissioner."
Since being dispatched to Xiage Town in our county in 2005, Hong Li has consistently taken root in rural areas, actively conducted research, and spread science and technology. She has helped the local area formulate and implement plans to accelerate agricultural development, introduced new agricultural technologies, established science and technology demonstration bases, set up various specialized cooperatives, and actively carried out diverse forms of agricultural technical services and training services, using science and technology to help farmers open door after door to prosperity.
"She Is Our Cherry Queen"
"Teacher Hong Li is our 'Cherry Queen.' Without her guidance and help, our village's cherries and honey peaches would never be this good." Whenever Hong Li is mentioned, Cheng Zhiyi, Party branch secretary of Yangpengtou Village, says with emotion.
In 2005, when Hong Li first arrived in Yangpengtou Village, the "fruit village," as a science and technology commissioner for Xiage Town, she found that the village's cherry trees had few varieties, the cherries were small, the fruit-cracking rate was high, the appearance and quality were poor, the production scale was small, and the level of standardized cultivation technology was low. To address this, Hong Li conducted in-depth research specifically on the local cherry industry.
During her field visits, Hong Li found that most of Yangpengtou Village's cherries were early-to-mid-season varieties, with harvesting finished before the May Day short holiday. Therefore, introducing superior varieties was the first step to improving cherry quality and extending the harvest period. Afterward, on the one hand, Hong Li took Yangpengtou Village's actual conditions into account and introduced large-fruit varieties and carried out selection of superior varieties; on the other hand, she frequently guided villagers on cherry cultivation techniques. Starting in 2006, Hong Li successively introduced the early-maturing "Gejiawu" variety and three superior mid-to-late-maturing varieties, "Black Pearl," "Wuyi," and "Badanzaohong," to Yangpengtou Village. It is understood that Yangpengtou Village's cherry varieties have increased from 2 in the past to 8 at present, of which 4 have excellent quality and are widely welcomed by consumers and growers.
March each year is when cherry blossoms bloom, and it is also the month most prone to late spring cold snaps. If rainy days occur as well, it not only affects pollination but also reduces the fruit-setting rate. In the first few years after she first came to Xianju, especially from March to May each year, she could often be seen busy in the fields and at the field edges, guiding villagers on how to spray foliar fertilizer and how to build rain-shelter facilities. Cheng Zhiyi said: "She really works very hard, often under the blazing sun in the fields and on the hills guiding farmers on how to manage cherries. She is a very down-to-earth person."
"Spraying pesticide, pruning branches, fertilizing... she is the one guiding us. If she doesn't have time to come over, she calls us. We trust her very much." Village director Cheng Shoujin said this.
Because of this, every time Hong Li arrived at the village entrance, the fruit growers would see her from afar and call out happily: "Teacher Hong is here!" Her mobile phone also became the villagers' "science and technology 110" hotline for consulting about cherry planting. Every time villagers called her to ask about scientific and technical knowledge, she would always explain tirelessly, becoming the villagers' close friend. Cheng Zhiyi said: "Almost everyone in the village knows her. Our bond with her is very deep."
After several years of effort, by 2008 Yangpengtou Village's cherry industry had begun to take shape. Nearly the whole village consisted of cherry growers, and the varieties introduced in 2006 also bore fruit in 2009. Although the quality of the cherries improved, the farmers' incomes still could not rise. "Today 20 yuan per jin, tomorrow 15 yuan per jin, and then next it's 7 yuan, 8 yuan, but in Luqiao it sells for 40 or 50 yuan per jin." Cheng Zhiyi said helplessly.
If they wanted to open up sales channels for cherries and increase the added value of the product, establishing a cooperative was the right way forward. "At that time, the village had only one cooperative, so I discussed with the village Party secretary and established Xianju's first cherry cooperative, 'Xianju Jiyi Cherry Professional Cooperative,' helped standardize the cooperative and assisted with trademark registration, grading and packaging, and also created our own brand: Gexian brand cherries." Hong Li recalled.
Under this sales model, not only were there no worries about cherry sales channels, but the added value of the cherries also increased considerably. "Now the lowest purchase price is 30 yuan per jin, and farmers' incomes have increased several times over." As the head of the cooperative, Cheng Zhiyi said this. It is understood that, in addition to meeting local demand, the cooperative's fruit is also sold far away to Hangzhou, Shanghai, Wenzhou and other places, effectively increasing local fruit growers' incomes.
Through several years of unremitting effort and solid work, Yangpengtou Village's cherry industry developed rapidly. It not only established more than 300 mu of cherry rain-shelter facilities, but also established a cherry science and technology demonstration base and passed green base testing and green fruit certification. What made the villagers even happier was that returns rose from the original 6,000 yuan/mu to 20,000 yuan/mu, with economic and social benefits clearly improved, driving rapid development in surrounding villages and towns. This year, Yangpengtou Village's cherry planting area reached 550 mu, with output expected to reach 550,000 jin and output value of 11 million yuan.
"She Opened Up Our Road to Prosperity"
In 2009, during field research, Hong Li found that Sheshan Village had favorable conditions for developing black fungus: on the one hand, during the winter agricultural slack season, Sheshan Village's rice paddies had a relatively large idle area, and farmers also had enough time to manage black fungus; on the other hand, as a semi-mountainous village, Sheshan Village not only had abundant wood, but also had many surrounding craft processing factories, with rich resources such as mulberry branches, fruit branches, craft scraps, miscellaneous wood, and rice straw.
"This can both make full use of resources and increase farmers' incomes. Why not do it?" To this end, Hong Li took the initiative to discuss with the town and helped Sheshan Village establish a 50-mu black fungus-single-season rice efficient ecological agriculture demonstration base. At the same time, she worked on technical research day and night, formulated an implementation plan for "black fungus-single-season rice," introduced strains such as "916," "918," and "Xinke," and carried out experiments including comparison of introduced new varieties and the fertilizer effect of black fungus bag substrate on rice, ultimately determining the planting project.
Under her guidance, Sheshan Village built a black fungus production base and put it into operation, and sales were very good, with sales revenue reaching 770,000 yuan. The price of dried fungus reached 60 yuan per kg, and the average net income per mu was more than 14,000 yuan. This new cultivation model not only put idle land to use and raised land output, but also increased rice yield, stabilized grain production, and achieved the goal of a "ten-thousand-yuan field," bringing multiple economic, social and ecological benefits to the local area.
Zhu Shengli, Party branch secretary of Sheshan Village, said: "Our village previously only had bayberry, but Teacher Hong opened up our road to prosperity. Now our village has begun planting blueberries. Whenever Teacher Hong Li comes to Xiage, she always comes by to give guidance. She is very responsible."
In addition to guiding the development of the cherry industry, in 2007, under Hong Li's leadership, Yangpengtou Village and Yangfutou Village began developing honey peaches, introducing superior honey peach varieties such as "Hongmilu," and encouraging farmers to plant honey peaches according to local conditions and their own circumstances. At present, there is nearly 1,000 mu of planting area.