One mu of white lotus is worth three mu of rice; it is a good way to escape poverty and get rich
"This year we will definitely take off the poverty hat!" On March 29, Luo Qiyou, a poor household in Tieyuan Village, Junbu Township, Yongfeng County, after receiving free lotus seeds from village officials, made a "military pledge" full of confidence in front of everyone.
Before planting white lotus, 69-year-old Luo Qiyou lived a tight life. Last year he trial-planted 2 mu of white lotus, and unexpectedly the net income reached more than 10,000 yuan. Having tasted the sweetness, Luo Qiyou increased by 3 mu in one go this year; together with the 2 mu kept for seed last year, the white lotus planting area this year doubled compared with last year. "I hope income can rise another step." As the lotus seeds went into the field, Luo Qiyou began to look forward to this year's white lotus harvest.
Tieyuan Village is a remote mountain village in Junbu Township, Yongfeng County. Last year, with policy support, some people trial-planted more than 200 mu of white lotus and achieved very good returns. For the trial-planted white lotus, income per mu was at least 3,000 to 4,000 yuan, and at most 5,000 to 6,000 yuan, much more worthwhile than growing rice. The growers who benefited were highly motivated this year and took the initiative to expand the scale. Driven by the influence of the "experimental households," other grain farmers also became "lotus farmers" one after another, and the whole village's white lotus planting area exceeded 600 mu. Even the low-lying land that had been abandoned for six or seven years was reclaimed and planted with white lotus.
The booming white lotus planting in Tieyuan Village is a microcosm of the county's white lotus planting fever spreading across mountain villages this year. In the 8 townships and towns located in the southern mountainous area, such as Junbu, Tantou, and Shaxi, due to high mountains and long roads, backward production technology conditions, and the natural environment, it had long been difficult to develop and establish a leading industry to enrich the people. For a long time, villagers' main source of income depended on young and middle-aged laborers working away from home, and poverty was relatively common. Last year, places such as Shanggu and Junbu, based on the characteristics and industrial foundation of the southern mountainous area, vigorously supported the development of the white lotus industry, developing 3,500 mu of white lotus, with more than 1,500 lotus-growing households increasing income by more than 10,000 yuan on average, blazing a new path for targeted poverty alleviation.
The county promptly issued the "Implementation Opinions on Vigorously Developing the White Lotus Industry in Key Areas of the Southern Mountainous Area," providing awards and subsidies in six aspects: large-scale planting, equipment purchase, base construction, standard demonstration, expanding sales, and deepening processing. At the same time, it established a microcredit support mechanism, vigorously promoted standardized production techniques such as the "good seed + good method" high-yield cultivation technology and intercropping and rotation cultivation models, paid attention to brand cultivation and lotus-tourism interaction, and comprehensively boosted the development and growth of the white lotus industry in the southern mountainous area.
"With such good policies, there is no reason not to go all out." Cheng Daigui, an old Party member in Junbu Township, said excitedly. Now in his 50s, Cheng Daigui is one of the earliest lotus farmers in Kongkeng Village. Two years ago, Cheng Daigui registered and established Chuanming Family Farm in Junbu Township, with annual net income from white lotus planting of more than 100,000 yuan. This year, under the guidance and support of township and village officials, Old Cheng increased land transfer efforts, and the white lotus planting area exceeded the 100-mu mark for the first time, making him the white lotus "champion" of the whole township and even the whole county.
Large lotus growers expanded their scale, poor people hurried to follow up, and those who had worked away from home and returned naturally refused to lag behind. "If income per mu is 3,000 to 4,000 yuan, although it is a bit less than income outside, it allows me to care for the elderly and children, so it is better than being outside." Wang Hegui, a young farmer in Luofang Village, Sanfang Township, and his wife both returned home, becoming part of the younger generation of lotus farmers. Wang Hegui said what made him determined to develop the white lotus industry at home was that last year a good friend from Junbu who had worked in the same factory in Shenzhen returned home to plant lotus on a large scale and earned more than 60,000 yuan in net income, exceeding his income from working in Shenzhen. The growth of the lotus farming ranks has given the white lotus industry a gratifying "blowout" momentum. This year, the county's white lotus planting area exceeded 20,000 mu, surging to 6 times that of last year.
"One mu of lotus field is better than 3 mu of rice field." Wu Zhengyuan of the county's white lotus industry office explained the reason for the white lotus planting fever. In the southern mountainous area, due to soil, water source, climate, and other reasons, rice yields are relatively low, generally around 600 to 700 jin per mu. Even for rice fields that can grow two seasons, net income is only a little over 1,000 yuan, and moreover many cultivated lands can only grow one season. In contrast, white lotus planting requires an average investment of only about 500 yuan per mu, shows results in the same year, and yields 4,000-6,000 yuan per mu, 2-3 times that of growing rice. Practice has proved that if labor for stripping and drying is saved, one left-behind elderly person can fully manage about 2 mu of lotus fields. The investment is not large, the income is not small, and the labor intensity is not high. Coupled with tangible preferential policies such as "free seed supply and various awards and subsidies," the white lotus industry is indeed a good path to escape poverty and get rich, suitable for the natural conditions of mountainous areas and the current general lack of young and middle-aged labor.
At present, through government support and guidance, the county is focusing on cultivating and guiding townships in the southern mountainous area to develop concentrated contiguous large-scale production bases, striving to build a white lotus industry economic and production-sales-processing integrated operating system with rational layout, optimized structure, a sound system, and high quality and efficiency, striving to create the "Yongfeng White Lotus" geographical indication certification trademark, building a white lotus industry culture, and enabling more people to produce silver from lotus, dig for treasure in lotus, and pan for gold outside lotus.