Medicinal herb cultivation helps villagers of Hexi Village, Duping, Chongqing get rich
Recently, reporters visited several medicinal herb-growing farming households in Hexi Village, Duping Township, to hear them tell their own "herb stories."
Around Frost's Descent, achyranthes and figwort enter the harvest season
In the deep mountains of Hexi Village, the fragrance of herbs runs through the mountain people's year of labor. Planting, harvesting, selling... Here, you can see people busy harvesting medicinal herbs in the fields.
On the 26th, the overlapping mountain ranges bathed in sunlight were warm all over. The car kept winding along the mountain paths, and by noon it arrived at the medicinal herb planting base of Hexi Village. Hexi Village has a total medicinal herb planting area of 2000 mu, currently growing achyranthes, pubescent angelica, figwort and many other medicinal herbs. Under their careful tending, the achyranthes harvest is now in sight.
"Da da da..." Medicinal herb grower Guo Yincai is a middle-aged man in his 40s. He was seen moving tirelessly through the fields, crawling amid a yellow sea of electricity fees, picking achyranthes seeds. Afterward, he was seen arching his back, rolling his trouser legs up high, going down to the field, cutting achyranthes stems, and digging up achyranthes vigorously with a hoe.
The achyranthes just dug out of the ground and spread flat on the earth, one stalk after another, were bright yellow like gold.
These days, Guo Yincai runs to the fields every few days to check the growth of the other medicinal herbs. These medicinal herbs are the source of his yearly income. Figwort and pubescent angelica can also be harvested on a large scale now. Today, the achyranthes has basically been fully harvested.
High-mountain medicinal herbs are superior in quality; herb farmers each show their skills in growing herbs
Hexi Village, Duping Township, is located at the junction of Chongqing and Hubei on the south bank of the Wu Gorge in the heart of the Three Gorges, with an elevation of more than 1300 m throughout, making it a place richly productive of medicinal herbs, with many varieties and superior quality. The sunshine, soil, mist and humidity, elevation and other conditions here are all very suitable for the growth of medicinal herbs.
Sowing, weeding, fertilizing, harvesting... Since the beginning of last year, Guo Yincai has been fully absorbed in the fields from morning to night. "Taking care of these medicinal herbs is even more meticulous than taking care of my own children used to be," said Guo Yincai's wife.
These herb farmers are not only devoted to growing medicinal herbs, but also quite creative.
Not only do they grow medicinal herbs, they also spontaneously raise goats, using medicinal herb stems as winter fodder for the goats. "Last year I saw these medicinal herb stems lying idle, and I thought these stems could feed goats, so I cut these stems into sections and dried them in the sun, and in winter I used these stems as feed to feed the goats, and in my spare time during the slack farming season I go into the mountains to herd goats. Based on this idea, I raised 20 small lambs. In the second half of this year, I expect 12 goats can be sent to market, which can add about 15,000 yuan, plus 10 mu of achyranthes can bring in 40,000 yuan," Guo Yincai said frankly.
Guo Yincai is just a microcosm of the herb farmers of Hexi Village. There are more than 80 herb farmers in the village just like him.
With orders signed, herb farmers are full of confidence in growing medicinal herbs
It is understood that this year Hexi Village planted 500 mu of achyranthes, each mu can harvest 1 ton of fresh goods, one jin of fresh goods is 1.8 yuan, and the output value per mu is about 4000 yuan; achyranthes alone can increase the whole village's output by more than 2 million yuan.
Hexi Village relies on Shennü Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. The company will build a complete medicinal herb industry chain platform to achieve a one-stop service of production, processing and sales of medicinal herbs. Adopting the "company + base + farmer" approach, and formulating technical regulations for seedling raising and fertilizing, planting patterns, cultivation management, harvesting methods and other links according to requirements, it has basically achieved large-scale planting and standardized production. The company provides seedlings and technical guidance to growing farmers free of charge, offers one-stop service from site selection, transplanting, field management, herb harvesting and other aspects, and signs orders with herb farmers, thereby boosting the continuous expansion of the medicinal herb planting scale in Hexi Village, the continuous increase of planted varieties, and the in-depth advancement of medicinal herb cultivation.
Guo Yincai said, "Although Hexi Village is not suitable for growing flue-cured tobacco, through signing purchase contracts and order-based production, it is guaranteed that all medicinal herbs will be purchased at a relatively good price, ensuring the benefits for us ordinary people. We will follow the requirements of the company and the technicians of the Agriculture Committee; whatever they require us to plant and whatever area they require us to plant, we will follow them, so that our high-mountain area can quickly shake off poverty and become rich."