Walking into the rich village south of Xiushan Pass Town, you will be greeted by such a beautiful spring scene: 3200 acres of walnut trees are full of greenery, and green fruits stand on the branches and sway with the wind.
There is no wasteland in the whole village, and a walnut forest grows on the ground, under which are konjac, yacon and potatoes. In the past 6 years, the poor and wealthy villages have relied on the mountains to eat the mountains, and have to reclaim new hope on the wasteland, drawing a blank piece of paper into a blueprint.
Zhao Maoxing (left) inspects the growth of walnut saplings in the field
A blank piece of paper The village is a wasteland
The Sun Mountain in southeastern Chongqing is thousands of meters above sea level, and the rich villages in the depths of the mountains are not rich.
The name "Rich Village" was changed by local villagers more than 40 years ago. After that, the people in the village basically solved the problem of food and clothing by farming and part-time work, but a good life was still a luxury.
A few years ago, the young and middle-aged people in the village went out to work, and the land was deserted.
"Just grow a la carte and grain." Zhao Maoxing recalled, "The whole village was like a blank piece of paper. In July 2015, Zhao Maoxing, 52- vice chairman of the county disabled persons' federation, was sent here as the first secretary of the village, and about two and a half years later he was recommended as the secretary of the party branch.
How hard was the villagers' life when they first arrived?
"The mountain road is steep, all hairy, not an inch of hardened road." Zhao Maoxing said that there are more than 20 kilometers of road from the village to the town to catch up with the market, and it is dark to go out early in the morning to catch up. "Electricity consumption has also become a problem, and the rice machine can only be turned when the electricity is strong in the middle of the night."
What makes Zhao Maoxing difficult is that the village has built infrastructure and developed industries to get rid of poverty, but the reality is that most of the people who stay in the village are left behind the elderly and children.
"I wanted to have a meeting to discuss, but I wouldn't come in the village." Mr. Zhao said it was not easy to draw a blueprint on a blank piece of paper.
In order to mobilize the endogenous motivation of the villagers, Zhao Maoxing went to the village to do work, and also borrowed three feature films on the self-improvement of the disabled and played them in 6 villager groups.
"It took a lot of effort to bring people together." Zhao Maoxing sighed.
In the past 6 years, the road has been opened and the industry has taken shape
"I really haven't asked for anyone before, but in the past few years, I have mobilized all the resources that can be mobilized around me." Zhao Maoxing said that in order to change the world and the earth in the village, he insisted on eating in the village, living in the village, and working in the village for many years.
Through his efforts, he raised more than 18 million yuan of funds, so that the village's roads, drinking water and other infrastructure were completely changed, and the car could be driven to the dam of the villagers' homes.
The key to the development of the whole village lies in the industry. But where does the industry come from?
During a visit, Zhao Maoxing was attracted by a walnut tree on the side of the road, which was full of green fruits.
"The industry sprouted." Zhao Maoxing looked up the information everywhere and cautiously selected the walnut industry for the village. "Walnuts are drought-tolerant and barren, and the hillsides are sparsely populated, and the 'disadvantage' has become an 'advantage'."
Where does the money come from?
"In addition to policy funds, I play the emotional card everywhere to raise money." Zhao Maoxing said that the millions of yuan he raised became the "first bucket of gold" for the village's industrial development.
Before planting walnut trees, some people suggested finding an excavator to open up the land, but Zhao Maoxing vetoed it: it was better to spend the money on the excavator than to put it in the pockets of the villagers.
"The whole village is hoeed and reclaimed, and not a single tree pit is dug by an excavator." Zhao Maoxing said.
Throughout the winter of 2016, villagers reclaimed more than 1,700 acres of wasteland, dug 25,687 nests, and planted all seedlings in March of the following year.
A blueprint There are fruits in the forest and under the forest
How much dirt there is under your feet, how much truth there is in your heart.
In July 2015, Zhao Maoxing's WeChat sent out the first circle of friends dynamics, which were pigs and goats in fuyu villages. Over the years, his footprints have traveled throughout the village, and the most hairy is the growth of walnut trees, followed by snow lotuses, potatoes and konjac under the trees.
One of the greatest resources in the countryside is land. Not long ago, Chongqing issued the "Implementation Plan for The Overall Utilization of Wasteland to Promote the Development of Agricultural Production", which requires that the work of revitalizing and utilizing wasteland be done well.
"Now there is not a single wasteland in the rich village." Zhao Maoxing affirmed that even in the remote wasteland, walnut trees were planted in the wasteland, and some of them also developed the under-forest economy.
As of last year, the walnut planting area of Fuyu Village exceeded 3200 mu and a total of 52307 trees, and 239 households in 248 households in the whole village planted walnuts, with an average walnut planting area of 14.5 mu and 227 plants.
"Last year," it was roughly a few tons." Zhao Maoxing said that now more than 1,000 acres of walnut trees have begun to bear fruit.
The rich village explores the interest linkage mechanism and adopts the model of "company + professional cooperative + farmer", in which the company provides varieties, technologies and guarantees the recovery, and the professional cooperative is responsible for the connection between the company and the farmer.
In order to dispel the concerns of the villagers, it is clear that the ownership of walnut trees belongs to the villagers, and the enthusiasm of the villagers for management and protection is mobilized. After seeing the benefits, each tree pays a fee of 1 to 5 yuan to the professional cooperative on an annual basis to solve the problem of "empty shell village".
"A tree's walnuts are shaken down for far more than 5 bucks." Zhao Maoxing said that the benefits of walnut trees are relatively long, properly managed can bear fruit for decades, and the sustainable benefits are good.
The rich village also encourages the villagers to combine the long and short terms to develop the "under-forest economy", planting high-quality alpine potatoes, yacon fruit, Chinese medicinal materials, konjac and other short-term crops under the walnut tree, and the professional cooperatives in the rich village are uniformly purchased and sold.
In January, Zhao Maoxing stepped down as the secretary of the village party branch, and his successor led the villagers to prosperity. On a blank piece of paper, a beautiful blueprint is emerging, and a new hope has grown on a wasteland.
Upstream News Chongqing Morning News reporter Guo Faxiang