The sixth-industry wealth-building story of post-80s village official Zhao Xiantao
"We need to do the whole chain of planting, processing and sales, and achieve deep integration of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries." On October 20, at the Chinese herbal medicine planting base in Zhaoshangjing Village, Baixiang County, "post-80s" village official Zhao Xiantao said, pointing to the well-growing Chinese medicinal herbs.
In 2012, Zhao Xiantao quit his job with a high salary at a large dairy company in the provincial capital, and full of youthful impulse to build his hometown, returned to Zhaoshangjing Village in Baixiang County to become village committee director. Soon after returning to the village, Zhao Xiantao visited households one by one to learn about the village's situation. After gaining a full understanding of the village's conditions, in order to help the people shake off poverty and become wealthy, Zhao Xiantao decided to find a project with strong demonstration value, not too large an investment, and a short return period to start his business.
By chance, a news report on television about developing ecological and efficient agriculture gave Zhao Xiantao inspiration. After more than half a year of investigation and analysis, he decided to make Chinese herbal medicine planting the breakthrough point for starting a business and becoming wealthy. He acted as soon as he decided, and that year he transferred 50 mu of land and started production trials of two Chinese medicinal herbs, Atractylodes macrocephala and Pinellia pedatisecta. "Although the technology was not very mature, each mu still generated more than 3,000 yuan in income, nearly 4 times the income of traditional crops." Growing medicinal herbs in the first year caused a big stir locally, and villagers and even people from surrounding villages initially recognized this project.
In 2013, Zhao Xiantao continued to transfer 50 mu of land to grow Chinese medicinal herbs. "In starting a business, you cannot act rashly; you must go step by step and grow from small to large." After growing them for two years and seeing that the returns from Chinese medicinal herbs were stable, Zhao Xiantao decided to expand the planting scale and established the Taidelong Chinese Herbal Medicine Cooperative. At present, more than 90 households of villagers have joined the cooperative, and more than 1,000 mu of land has been transferred, making it one of the province's 100 "Thousand-Mu Chinese Herbal Medicine Planting Demonstration Bases." He also signed a contract with an enterprise in Anguo, and as soon as the medicinal herbs were harvested, they were ordered by customers.
There were also hardships unknown to others in the process of starting the business. When first growing Chinese medicinal herbs, because the wrong pesticide was applied, all 50 mu of Atractylodes macrocephala died; when transferring land, he also encountered villagers' lack of understanding, saying he was just a young boy who did not know the depths of things. But all of that has passed. After last year's harvest of Chinese medicinal herbs, Zhao Xiantao distributed the money to the villagers according to the cooperative contract, and everyone smiled so widely they could not close their mouths.
Zhao Xiantao is not satisfied with the status quo, and is also committed to developing agriculture, the primary industry, into a "sixth industry," "that is, the integration of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries, achieving a one-stop chain of planting, processing and sales." To this end, Zhao Xiantao established Taidelong Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd. After investigation and market analysis, he decided, on the basis of the well-developed Chinese herbal medicine project, to try making mulberry leaf tea, and built a 200-mu high-protein forage mulberry demonstration garden. "The profit from tea is higher than that from medicinal herbs. Mulberry leaves are not sprayed with pesticides. Making mulberry leaves into tea conforms to people's current pursuit of natural green food. We call it longevity tea." Zhao Xiantao introduced that the company is now applying to relevant departments for certification standards for longevity tea. Before long, longevity tea will be sold on the market.