Oil tea bears flowers of prosperity, and the oil tea industry helps farmers increase their income

"It is said there are ninety-nine mountains, where the beauty of peak forests offers wondrous sights. Ten thousand mu of misty sea surge with golden waves, and oil tea flowers bloom across the hillsides." This song expresses the charm of the wild oil tea flowers in Tujie Town, Weining Autonomous County.

In the early spring season, following the winding mountain road all the way forward, the oil tea trees covering the mountains of Xinguang Village in Tujie Town look all the more green under the early spring sunshine. Along the Changliangzi ridge stretching more than 10 km, large numbers of wild oil tea trees grow across the slopes and ridges. Whenever spring comes and flowers bloom, ten thousand mu of oil tea compete in beauty, becoming a beautiful sight. Oil tea flowers are not only good to look at but also useful, becoming the masses' "flowers of prosperity." This is a new path that Tujie Town has explored to open up income growth and prosperity for the people through the oil tea industry.

In the course of oil tea development, the role of the leader cannot be underestimated. Li Xianjun is the famously well-known "Oil Tea King" of Tujie Town.

From village doctor to leader in becoming rich

At the oil tea planting base of the Tujie Town Wild Camellia Planting Professional Cooperative, scenes of busy labor are everywhere. Some villagers working at the base are busy weeding the young oil tea seedlings, while others are busy fertilizing the tea trees, bustling with activity.

Li Xianjun is the person in charge of the Tujie Town Wild Camellia Planting Professional Cooperative. At the age of 40, he appears plain in manner yet full of wisdom.

When talking about the reason for planting oil tea, Li Xianjun beams with energy.

Originally a village doctor, Li Xianjun ran a pharmacy. By a chance opportunity, when he went to Fujian to study, he saw camellia flowers all over the mountains and fields. After asking around, he learned that these camellia flowers and camellia fruits were used for deep processing in cosmetics and had very high market value. Thinking of the wild tea trees seen everywhere in his hometown, Li Xianjun's heart lit up, and after returning he began pondering how to tap the value of his hometown's wild tea trees.

After a period of cultivation and processing, Li Xianjun took the first batch of pressed camellia oil to the Guizhou Academy of Forestry Sciences for testing. The test results showed that the oil pressed from local wild tea trees had very high nutritional value and contained vitamin E needed by the human body, making it very suitable for consumption.

After the preliminary work was prepared, in 2010, through Li Xianjun's efforts, the Tujie Town Wild Camellia Planting Professional Cooperative was officially established, with registered capital of 1 million yuan. The cooperative signed a land contracting agreement with the villagers' committee and contracted 1,300 mu of barren hills and land as an experimental base.

In 2014, Li Xianjun went to attend tea expos in Wuhan, Yiwu, and Guiyang. Tujie oil tea containing 15.6% vitamin E was very eye-catching at the tea expo, sold to visitors at the tea expo at a price of 120 yuan per jin, and won unanimous praise from tea merchants.

Li Xianjun said happily: "The wild oil tea improved three years ago now has borne fruit. The income from one tea tree is between 20 yuan and 30 yuan. After deducting costs, the returns are very considerable." Tujie oil tea thus made a name for itself in one stroke and quickly moved into markets beyond the mountains.

Greening the barren hills and enriching the people

Now, the Tujie oil tea base has planted 10,000 mu of oil tea, improved more than 3,000 mu of wild forest, developed more than 1,800 mu of new forest, established a 300 mu seedling base, and cultivated more than 400,000 improved-variety oil tea seedlings. Besides meeting the base's planting needs, the tea seedlings are also supplied externally as high-quality improved-variety seedlings. Oil tea seedlings are sold far away to surrounding areas such as Hezhang and Panxian.

As spring warmth brings flowers into bloom, the ten thousand mu of oil tea trees in Changliangzi, Tujie Town, not only attract large numbers of tourists for sightseeing but also become the villagers' "money trees" for becoming rich.

"These mountains used to be barren hills. Now that oil tea trees have been planted, they can both preserve green mountains and clear waters and increase economic income." Li Xianjun introduced that the oil tea industry chain is long and its comprehensive utilization value is high. Besides selling tea oil, tea cake can be used as feed and sold to local breeding households at a price of 1.2 yuan per jin. In addition, many deep-processed products remain to be developed, and tourism agriculture can also be developed at the same time.

It is understood that camellia oil has long had the reputation of "oil king" and is a healthy vegetable oil. Tujie wild short-styled camellia has fruit with the advantages of thin skin, high fruit-setting rate, and high oil yield. The oil pressed from camellia seeds is rich in various trace elements needed by the human body. At the same time, camellia seeds can also serve as raw materials for cosmetics, soap, margarine, hair oil, vaseline, mechanical lubricating oil, and more, with broad market prospects.

Those who become rich first do not forget to help those who become rich later

Li Xianjun, who became rich first, did not forget his fellow villagers. He believes that only when everyone is rich is it truly prosperity. Li Xianjun has been constantly thinking about how to cultivate new industries to grow the economy and drive rural economic development and farmers' prosperity.

At present, 120 people from the masses work at the oil tea base, all of them nearby villagers. "In the past, during the slack farming season the masses had nothing to do. Now, after finishing farm work at home, they can also work nearby at the base to earn money, which both solves the surplus labor force and increases farmers' economic income." Li Xianjun said that oil tea is a new type of industry. By picking oil tea from their own mountain forests and selling it to the cooperative, the common people can produce more than 1,000 jin of fresh fruit from about one mu of wild tea garden. According to the contract purchase price, the common people's oil tea can achieve an economic benefit of 2,000 yuan per mu.

Talking about the next steps, Li Xianjun said: "The cooperative will gradually improve the construction of the oil tea industry, select and promote new oil tea varieties through a combination of long-term and short-term approaches, extend the oil tea industry, vigorously promote the transformation and upgrading of the oil tea industry, build a new, green, and environmentally friendly oil tea industry, radiate and drive the whole village to plant the oil tea industry, and promote farmers' prosperity and income growth." As for the prospects of the Wild Camellia Professional Cooperative, Li Xianjun is full of confidence. He hopes to make the oil tea industry bigger and stronger.