Growing tea and snake gourd together doubles the planting income

    Hard work alone is not enough; one must also work smart. In the adjustment of the planting structure, Fang Guangping, a villager of Mochuan Village, Fuwen Township, took the lead with an innovative mindset and a drive for better returns by experimenting with a three-dimensional planting system that interplants snake gourd in early-maturing tea fields. Not only did he achieve a double harvest of tea and snake gourd, doubling his economic returns, but he also accumulated valuable planting experience.  

In 2003, Fang Guangping planted one mu of an early-maturing tea variety and gained a certain return that same year. But not content with the status quo, he put his mind to work: could he plant another complementary crop in the tea furrows to make full use of the soil and fertility and increase his economic returns? After careful observation and deliberate consideration, he chose the tall-growing snake gourd. In 2005, he planted 40 snake gourd plants in the tea furrows. By 2006, the snake gourds had climbed onto the trellis, and he harvested over one hundred jin of seeds, earning 1,200 yuan. Moreover, the early-maturing tea variety beneath the snake gourd trellis reduced the number of times and the time needed to clear weeds for the snake gourds, and also raised the temperature of the tea plants in winter, prompting the spring tea to be picked three or four days earlier, thus creating a complementary effect.  

This year, having fully grasped the secrets of this method, Fang Guangping gave it free rein. Through careful cultivation, one mu of tea has already yielded 2,500 yuan, and with two months of picking season still to go, the snake gourds are already heavy on the trellis. He estimates a harvest of 250 jin of snake gourd seeds, earning about 2,300 yuan, bringing the per-mu value to 4,800-5,000 yuan. The success of Fang Guangping's three-dimensional planting soon spread among the farming households, and people came one after another to "learn from his experience." This year, seven or eight households in the village have begun to follow suit, and it will soon be extended to other villages.