Black rice cultivation paved Xiao Guofeng's road to prosperity
From an ordinary village cadre to a leader in black rice cultivation in Yuexi Township, Dongkou County, Xiao Guofeng, now the village Party secretary of Heiyan Village in Yuexi Township, has successfully led the villagers to explore a road to prosperity through unremitting efforts.
Heiyan Village is located deep in the Xuefeng Mountains, and most villagers make a living by working away from home. Within more than 10 km around the village there is not a single school or hospital; children have difficulty going to school, villagers have difficulty seeing a doctor, and travel is difficult, making it a typical poverty-stricken village. The village has abundant mountain forest resources; its whetstones and its thick, fragrant black rice are its widely known "golden seeds," but due to inconvenient transportation and delayed access to information, the products were limited to small-scale operations and had difficulty opening up sales channels.
In order to open up markets for Heiyan Village's flagship product and lead the villagers toward prosperity, Xiao Guofeng went to the township government. He hoped the township government could help find a way out, and unexpectedly Xiao Guofeng's ideas coincided perfectly with those of the township government leaders. They acted at once; Xiao Guofeng returned to the village and organized the villagers to establish the Heiyan Village Black Rice Cooperative. In order to motivate the villagers to grow the crop, the cooperative promised to purchase uniformly and signed contracts with set prices. To strengthen technical guidance and improve the quality of the black rice, Xiao Guofeng, through the township agricultural technology station, invited black rice experts from the provincial academy of agricultural sciences to guide the techniques and improve the varieties, making the black rice even more fragrant.
Everything was ready, and only the east wind was missing; the black rice harvest was about to come on the market. Facing the unavoidable problem of "sales," Xiao Guofeng called together village cadres and key cooperative members for a brainstorming meeting: go out, learn from advanced experience, raise their own market awareness, and push Heiyan's "treasured darling" onto the market. With the help of township cadres, they designed exquisite packaging bags full of rustic flavor, dressing the treasured darling in high-end, impressive "prosperity clothes"; isn't online shopping popular now? This time we farmers are also catching up with the trend! Xiao Guofeng took the initiative to try letting Heiyan black rice ride the "Internet" express, moving the sales platform onto Taobao and selling through the Internet. Once they tried it, there was no stopping it; today e-commerce sales have become the main sales channel for Heiyan black rice. "How amazing, with just a gentle click of the mouse, our black rice is sold just like that. It is truly a great helper for us farmers to get rich." Xiao Guofeng's joy was evident in his words.
At present, the Heiyan Village Black Rice Cooperative has just started and is still operating extensively. Xiao Guofeng said that once the black rice business becomes bigger and stronger, he also plans to carry out deep processing of the black rice to increase its added value. As Heiyan black rice continues to sell well, the villagers' average annual income has increased by more than 1,000 yuan. Speaking of the future prospects of the black rice cooperative, Xiao Guofeng is full of confidence.