Seedling cultivation develops a green industry and sets farmers on the road to prosperity

    Under the scorching sun, walking into Danangou Village, Balidianzi Town, Huanren Manchu Autonomous County, what comes into view are stretches of seedling nurseries, where rows upon rows of green young saplings, bathed in sunlight, show off their upright posture and grow sturdily. Villager Liu Yanchun is leading a group of hired workers in her own nursery, top-dressing the young saplings, so busy that she does not even bother to wipe the sweat from her face. When Liu Yanchun had a spare moment, the reporter talked with her about this year's income from seedlings, and she beamed with joy: "This spring, 1 million Japanese larch seedlings brought me more than 200,000 yuan in income; after deducting expenses such as the newly installed sprinkler irrigation equipment, I made a net profit of more than 60,000 yuan. When the existing 3 million seedlings here are sold next spring, the income will be even more considerable!" From "farmland" to "nursery."

Danangou Village has a total area of 48,000 mu, of which 2,600 mu is cultivated land. The village has 356 farming households and 1,237 agricultural residents. This area is a typical high-cold mountainous area in Benxi City, and its regional characteristics determine that it has the innate conditions suitable for developing the seedling cultivation industry. As early as the 1970s, the Liaoning Provincial Institute of Forest Economics took the lead in carrying out a research project in this village, trial-planting Japanese larch and Korean pine. Through planting practice, this technology achieved success in one go. But at that time, the popularization and promotion of this industry in Danangou Village did not go as smoothly as imagined. Under the influence of deep-rooted traditional planting concepts, the farmers could not believe that not planting grain in the land but planting trees instead could also bring prosperity. "Farmland, farmland, if you don't plant crops, can it still be called land?" In their eyes, this was simply "not doing proper work" and "ruining the land." So at first only a few bold farmers trial-planted a few mu, and under the guidance of experts they tended them as carefully as if caring for their own children, weeding, top-dressing, spraying pesticides... not daring to be careless in the slightest.

After a year, the villagers found that seedling cultivation was indeed much more worthwhile than traditional planting, with each mu bringing in several hundred yuan or even over a thousand yuan more. Faced with the facts, the villagers were completely convinced, and the number of farmers proactively applying to engage in seedling cultivation gradually began to increase. After years of snowballing development, the number of households in Danangou engaged in seedling cultivation has now reached 272, accounting for 76.4% of the village's farming households, and the seedling-growing area has reached 1,380.5 mu, accounting for 53.1% of the village's cultivated land area. The types of seedlings grown have also expanded from the original larch and Korean pine to more than 10 varieties including spruce, yew, five-angle maple, Tiannu magnolia, and Acanthopanax senticosus, forming three major series: landscaping varieties, mountain afforestation varieties, and medicinal material varieties. Last year alone, this single item generated an output value of nearly 7 million yuan for Danangou Village, increasing per capita income by more than 4,500 yuan. The farmers of Danangou Village have finally moved from "farmland" to "nursery," and the seedling industry has thus become an important way for local farmers to increase their prosperity and income.

After being helped onto the horse, they still need someone to accompany them a stage further

After helping farmers onto the road to prosperity through seedling cultivation, Balidianzi Town and Nangou Village did not let go, but instead, with the continuous development of the seedling industry and the gradual expansion of the base scale, promptly standardized, guided, and supported the industry's development. After actively seeking support from higher authorities, in the autumn of this year, all seedling bases in Danangou Village will be equipped with water-saving sprinkler irrigation equipment, thereby greatly enhancing the seedling industry's ability to withstand drought. In response to the current situation in which the supply of some seedling varieties is becoming saturated in recent years, the town and village promptly proposed that "we must adapt to market demand and develop the seedling industry according to the principle of having what others do not, being better than others where they have it, and being more refined than others where they are better." With the town and village setting up the platform and pointing the way, the villagers spontaneously organized and established the Danangou Village Seedling Association and created Danangou's own seedling brand. The past development pattern of each fighting alone and going it alone has been replaced by today's cooperative approach of standing together and marketing jointly, forming the scale advantage of Danangou's seedling industry and broadening the space for the village's future seedling industry development.

Although in many years of practice, many "local experts" in seedling cultivation have emerged in Danangou, these farmers have limited professional and technical levels, still lack sufficient access to technical information, and are still somewhat inexperienced in resisting and preventing various diseases and handling planting problems. Therefore, every year the village hires agricultural experts from the province and city at high salaries to give on-site lectures in the village, teach farmers advanced planting experience, promote new seedling varieties, and actively organize farmers to participate in professional technical training, focusing on strengthening exchanges and cooperation among households in various industries and comprehensively raising farmers' industrial and technical levels. The village also uses modern means to provide a platform for farmers to sell seedlings through the Internet. Every year, large numbers of buyers from Heilongjiang, Jilin, and other provinces as well as various cities in our province come here through online information to purchase seedlings.

Today, the growing and expanding seedling industry has sown the hope of green prosperity for the farmers of Danangou Village and brought rolling wealth to the people here.