How to standardize a spice base? Lin Fuchun built it this way
Yang Guorong, Yang Xiaoping and Yang Xiaosheng, three brothers from Jingtang Village, Shangxing Town, Liyang City, Changzhou, who do engineering work in Suzhou, recently made a special trip back to their hometown to attend training at a farmers' training school founded by village Party secretary Lin Fuchun. What they studied was osmanthus industry training. This was already their second time attending the training.
On the eve of Arbor Day last year, the three Yang brothers were invited to attend the village's osmanthus cultivation technique training class and were deeply inspired. They immediately planted 2,000 osmanthus trees, which the three brothers jokingly called "pension trees." Since 2004, more than 500 farming households like the three Yang brothers have embarked on the flower and tree path after attending training at the farmers' training school, developing nearly 30,000 mu of osmanthus and more than 5,000 mu of other flowers and trees.
How did Lin Fuchun come up with the idea of running a farmers' training school? Ten years ago, he happened to meet a professor from Nanjing Forestry University. The professor told him that osmanthus is a traditional famous flower of our country, integrating greening, beautification and fragrance, with high ornamental, edible and medicinal value, as well as beauty and health functions. Natural osmanthus essence is worth more than gold on the international market, and its development prospects are very broad. Liyang City, located in a hilly and mountainous area, is very suitable for planting osmanthus trees. The professor's "golden idea" excited Lin Fuchun, who was looking for a way to get rich, and he immediately decided to cooperate with Nanjing Forestry University to research and develop the osmanthus industry.
After returning, Lin Fuchun contracted more than 3,000 mu of barren hills on Fangshan and Zhishan in his hometown of Jingtang Village, introduced 4 populations and more than 80 famous, special and superior osmanthus varieties totaling 120,000 plants, established an osmanthus base, and founded the Fangzhilin Ecological Agriculture Park. After years of effort, more than 30 million yuan has been invested, successfully developing and planting more than 2,000 mu of osmanthus and 1,000 mu of rare high-quality tea and fruit, achieving an annual output value of 80 million yuan, with the output value per mu of osmanthus expected to reach 8,000 yuan. At present, this osmanthus base has been listed as the osmanthus base of the International Cultivar Registration Center for the genus Osmanthus and the province's first osmanthus industry base.
In order to expand the osmanthus industry and bring prosperity to the local people, Lin Fuchun gave full play to the demonstration and driving role of a leading agricultural enterprise, actively organized and guided farmers to participate in industrialized development, and adopted the "company + base + farmers" development model. Not only did he plant osmanthus on both sides of rural roads and tractor roads, but he also mobilized farmers to plant osmanthus in courtyards and villages. To solve farmers' technical problems in osmanthus cultivation, he established Liyang's first farmers' training school in 2004. In addition to hiring professors from Nanjing Forestry University at his own expense to give lectures, he also used science and technology CDs to teach farmers, and organized farmers to visit his own base, where he taught farmers by sharing his own experience.
According to statistics, over the past 5 years, the school has provided free training to 10,000 farmer visits, driving surrounding farmers to develop nearly 30,000 mu of osmanthus bases, thus forming a 10,000-mu osmanthus industrial park with the Fangzhilin Ecological Park as the core and radiating across the whole city. "We strive to build the first standardized spice base in southern Jiangsu by 2011, thereby generating economies of scale," Lin Fuchun said.