Qinghai Province: Scientific Tree Planting Cultivates a Diversity of Wealth-Building Paths
Xinsheng Village in Gaomiao Town was famous in Ledu County from very early on, and when it comes to Shizuiji, its reputation spreads far and wide. "See how this place produces outstanding people, with many sons vying for the top; observe how this land is rich in treasures, with a single rocky outcrop gathering beauty" - this couplet written on the gate of Xinsheng Village stirs the imagination. This place has a long history and fertile land, and is the second-largest village in Ledu County. Because the village is large and the population is numerous, it inevitably enjoys prosperity and vitality, gathering culture and talent, becoming a wealthy land and a civilized township along the Huangshui River valley; but the land is also narrow and limited, which has given rise to many opportunities not encountered in the high mountain and gully areas. Scientific tree planting, growing a diversity of varieties, and cultivating wealth-building paths - this is one such opportunity.
Because of this opportunity, many customers from Gansu, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, **, and Tibet have now become new discoverers and promoters of Xinsheng Village. They feel fortunate to have discovered Xinsheng Village, and excited that Xinsheng Village has nursery stock.
Thus, Xinsheng Village went from Ledu to Qinghai, and then to the Northwest. Shizuiji gradually faded from memory, and more villagers also changed how they referred to the place, following outsiders in calling it Xinsheng. Xinsheng, this village that carries so many hopes of its ancestors, began to truly flourish anew.
In early spring, when farmers are busy sowing seeds, the people of Xinsheng are enjoying the joy of harvest. More than a thousand mu of flourishing nursery stock is being continuously shipped to destinations within and beyond the province, and the villagers who sold at good prices are overjoyed. Villager Li Xuemei said that her family planted all of their two-plus mu of land with nursery stock, and the income is much better than growing grain. As for villager Li Yuqin, in addition to her own land, she also rented more than ten mu of others' land to grow nursery stock.
That growing nursery stock is worthwhile has become a consensus among the people of Xinsheng. Last year, Xinsheng Village had a total cultivated land area of 2,179 mu, with nursery stock planting area reaching 1,150 mu, averaging 1.5 mu per household - and this does not even count the more than 200 mu that Xinsheng residents contracted in neighboring villages. Some Xinsheng villagers have extended nursery stock planting to townships such as Hongshui and Nianbo, expanding and strengthening the nursery stock industry through land contracting, cooperative operations, and other forms. Currently, the nursery stock varieties grown in Xinsheng Village mainly include more than 20 types, such as apricot trees, sea buckthorn, Chinese juniper, dragon spruce, elm, lilac, elm-leaf cherry, pearl bush, red (yellow) barberry, and more, basically forming a production pattern of specialized production and large-scale planting.
Nursery stock gave Xinsheng Village new life; nursery stock also gave Xinsheng Village hope. Xinsheng has become a well-known major nursery stock planting village in Qinghai Province. Nursery stock%26mdash;%26mdash;Xinsheng has become a pair of inseparable associated terms.
But all of this was not easily achieved. Think back to how the farmers felt when they first experimented with growing nursery stock on their private plots. In the early 1980s, about 10% of households in the village grew nursery stock - what a great determination that took! Entering the 1990s, seizing the favorable opportunity of the national ecological construction initiative, all farming households in the village grew nursery stock - what tremendous ambition that was!
Wang Yingsheng, a man who witnessed the history of Xinsheng's nursery stock development.
He has been growing nursery stock since the 1980s, began shipping nursery stock out in 1994, and in 2004 established Ledu Shenglv Nursery Stock Planting Co., Ltd., specializing in nursery stock production and sales. Currently he grows nursery stock on more than 50 mu, of which more than 40 mu is rented from others' farmland, and he cultivates over a dozen varieties.
In Xinsheng Village, there are many others like Wang Yingsheng who have prospered by growing nursery stock. The village alone has four nursery stock planting companies, six nursery stock brokers, and more than ten with nursery stock production and sales operating licenses. Through these people, Xinsheng Village's nursery stock is sold far and wide to Gansu, **, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Tibet, and other places, with out-of-town customers coming in an endless stream to haul away nursery stock.
Every spring, the village is bustling with traffic and unusually lively. Besides people from all over hauling nursery stock, there are also many workers from nearby villages coming to work. At peak times, Xinsheng Village has seven to eight hundred people from other villages coming here to dig, haul, load and unload, and plant nursery stock, with daily income ranging from several dozen yuan to nearly a hundred yuan.
Farmers, customers, laborers, bosses%26hellip;%26hellip; a modern life portrait of Xinsheng Village; absorbing outside labor, land transfer, large-scale operations - Xinsheng Village leaves people with much to ponder. Perhaps this cannot yet be called a nursery stock economy or anything of the sort, but the people of Xinsheng have a clear understanding: adjusting the nursery stock structure, expanding the planting of famous tree species, and taking the path of cooperative and joint planting and sales has gradually become the consensus of the people of Xinsheng.
If the increasingly scarce Ledu sand apple is a beautiful memory that Shizuiji left to the world, then the Xinsheng nursery stock renowned on the plateau makes this memory deeper and more concrete. After all, the people of Xinsheng have shown people new vitality in this land of fruits and melons; letting more land be clothed in green, and letting more people enjoy the nurturing of greenery.
By the Huangshui River south of Xinsheng Village stands an elementary school with an 82-year history - this is the pride of the people of Xinsheng Village. Arriving at the school, besides the sound of reading aloud and the innocent, lovely little faces, rows of elm saplings accompanying the students are particularly eye-catching, adding much color to the vast campus. According to the school's teachers, these are also nursery stock specially planted by the villagers - on one hand they can beautify the environment, and on the other they can add some income for the school.