Chaohu Lake, Anhui: Once a barren mountain hill, now a happy place

"Tang Jianke 3675 yuan, Xing Jun 2375 yuan..." On the afternoon of November 1, there was a little fame and laughter from time to time in the conference room of Chaoyang Village in Chaohu Town. It turned out that the village's joint-stock economic cooperative was giving villagers the sales money for yellow marshmallows and the wages of migrant workers in the processing workshop. "I'm really happy today, not only because I got the money, but also because I earned it with my own hands." When Gao Yongsheng, a poverty alleviation household in Chaoyang Village, received 2445 yuan from Guo Nianping, general secretary of the village party branch and village director, it was difficult to hide his excitement.

Barren mountains and hills become rich "roadblocks"

At the foot of the beautiful Dahuang Mountain on the Chaohu Peninsula, there are rolling Jianghuai hills, one of the sources of the Yanjiao River, which meanders through the gang here, and is also the location of Chaoyang Village in Yanjiao Town.

Like most villages also located between Jianghuai and Huaijiang, Chaoyang Village was once a place to eat from the sky, and "waterlogging when there is more rain, and drought when it does not rain for a few days" is a true portrayal of local agricultural production. Because the cost of agricultural production was too high, everyone was reluctant to cultivate land in the past, and the young and middle-aged laborers were unwilling to endure poverty and went out to work, leaving a large number of abandoned fields and women, children, and the elderly, and the village collective economy was almost blank. Among the 576 households and 1740 people in the village, 60 households and 106 people have been registered to help the poor.

"Speaking of the conditions for economic development, the actual resources in our village are only contiguous barren hills and hills, abandoned wasteland, and left-behind villagers who are generally over 60 years old, which are really very difficult." Guo Nianping recalled the difficulties when he first started a business, and not only felt a lot of emotions. How to make use of the existing conditions to develop and expand the village collective economy, so as to lead the masses, especially the dozens of households in the village to build files and set up files to help the poor get rid of poverty and become rich, has become the biggest problem facing the village cadres.

Cooperative "snowballs" are beginning to take shape

Just when the village was worried about the lack of a suitable industry to drive the collective economic development, the precedent of planting yellow marshmallows around the village to get rid of poverty and get rich brought inspiration to the village cadres. Yellow marshmallow can not only be used in medicine, but also from the stem to extract plant gum as a food additive, the economic value is higher, a season of flowers can be picked for 3 months, the blooming period is more than 1 month, 1 acre of high-yield field can reach four or five thousand pounds of production, 1 pound can sell 1 yuan, low input, high output, is a good project suitable for Chaoyang village conditions.

In 2018, Chaoyang Village tried to plant nearly 100 mu of yellow marshmallows, with an average yield of 3,500 jin of flowers per mu and an average net income of 3,000 yuan per mu, which was 2,000 yuan more than that of planting other crops. Seeing the benefits brought by the planting of yellow marshmallows, many farmers have joined the planting ranks, and since then, the prelude to the adjustment of the industrial structure of Chaoyang Village has officially begun, and the village shareholding economic cooperative has also come into being.

In 2019, the village used the surplus of 300,000 yuan in the past years after the reform of the village's collective assets as a start-up fund to adopt a rolling development model, mainly relying on the cultivation of yellow marshmallows and traditional cash crops such as rice, wheat and rapeseed. The scale of cultivation of yellow marshmallows has been expanding, and in addition to the spontaneous planting of villagers, the village has also used some villagers' abandoned fields and new land developed by farmland improvement as collective planting sites. In 2020, Chaoyang Village planted 450 mu of yellow marshmallows, and also led to the surrounding villages such as Guide, Shuguang, dacheng and other villages planted nearly 200 mu, these yellow marshmallows not only brought hope to farmers, but also brought full confidence to poor households.

In order to further increase the added value of products, in 2019, Chaoyang Village also built a new yellow marshmallow flower drying workshop, and by this year there have been 2 drying production lines, which not only solves the problem of flower drying in the village, but also has the ability to purchase and process the yellow marshmallow flowers in the surrounding villages, which adds a considerable income to the village.

In 2020, Chaoyang Village built a new warehouse and purchased agricultural tools such as rotary cultivators, small trucks, water pumps, sprayers, etc., and the cooperative became more and more complete. "After 3 years of groping and playing, cooperatives have gradually developed like snowballs and are now beginning to take shape." Speaking of the development and growth of the village cooperative, Guo Nianping's face showed joy.

Drawing a blueprint for the masses to eat the "reassuring pill"

At the on-site meeting of the cooperative's funds distribution, the small village conference room was crowded, and the villagers' faces were full of happy smiles. Of the more than 300,000 yuan in cash, except for the yellow marshmallow sales money that was taken away in advance by other villages, the rest were neatly arranged on the conference table, and the villagers went to the stage in turn to receive money, and the room was full of joy.

"In our village, 12 households have planted yellow marshmallows, there are more than 10 households in other villages, and there are 3 poverty alleviation households engaged in flower drying in the poverty alleviation workshop." This time the funds are issued, and the general establishment of the file card poverty alleviation households have an income of about 2,000 yuan, and the maximum is close to 4,000 yuan. Li Guangfei, a poverty alleviation specialist in Chaoyang Village, introduced.

"Now we have established a long-term cooperative relationship with a large pharmaceutical company in Jiangsu, so we hope that everyone can continue to expand the scale of planting next year and strive to make up for the losses caused by the flood this year." Guo Nianping, who presided over the distribution work, did not forget to advise the villagers, "Although the yield has been reduced this year, there is still an income of more than 2,000 yuan per mu, which is six or seven hundred yuan more than in the rice harvest year." New growers will be given technical guidance in the village, poverty alleviation households will reach a certain scale of planting, and the government will have subsidies, so everyone will be assured to expand the scale. Guo Nianping saw that there were many people who responded, and he immediately gave them a dose of "reassuring pills".

"The yellow marshmallows we planted this year have all been sold, and although we have suffered some disasters and reduced production, we still earn more than 600,000 yuan; indica, glutinous rice and fragrant rice have harvested a total of 150,000 catties, which can sell for 200,000 yuan, and have sold more than 60,000 yuan so far; the village collective mountain farm has contracted to the outside world, and the contracting fee is 120,000 yuan a year; the wheat in the spring has been sold for more than 30,000 yuan; the cooperative's agricultural machinery foreign service has also made a profit of more than 20,000 yuan, and this year's gross income of 1 million yuan is not a problem." Guo Nianping said with confidence.

In the field where yellow marshmallow flowers were originally planted not far from the village committee, 150 mu of wheat is sprouting, and more than 30 mu of rapeseed are also thriving. "When all the products of the cooperative are sold, we will ask a professional financial auditor to account for the cooperative's accounts. After setting aside sufficient production funds, we intend to distribute dividends according to the plan at the beginning of the year, which is estimated to be between 70 and 100 yuan per share. Guo Nianping's words made everyone more aggressive. (Wang Guoxiang Yanhuawen)