"I studied beekeeping for 20 years, and now that the technology is mature, honey can't be sold. The illness of the family, the schooling of school, it is too difficult for me to support a family of 8 alone. The 45-year-old Guo Xuewei's family lives in a small mountain village in Dengfeng, Henan, with an excellent natural environment on the mountain and abundant grass and trees suitable for beekeeping. He has been studying beekeeping technology since he was in his 20s, accumulating more than 20 years of beekeeping experience, and now the beekeeping technology is very mature, but the harvested honey can not be sold to make him worried.
Guo Xuewei has 8 people in the family, his parents are elderly and sick, 4 daughters are in school, his wife is at home to take care of the elderly and children, Guo Xuewei is the only labor force in the family. In 2017, Guo Xuewei's 65-year-old mother, Chen Xiuqin, unfortunately suffered from uremia and had to undergo hemodialysis three times a week to save her life. In order to see her mother, the family spent all their savings. Guo Xuewei's family lives in the mountains, and it is difficult to maintain his mother by raising bees to sell money to see his mother. Pictured here are Guo Xuewei and his elderly parents.
"My mother sometimes has to be hospitalized because of her serious illness, and it costs at least 30,000 or 40,000 yuan to see her every year." Guo Xuewei said that Aunt Chen's health has been not good, in addition to uremia she also suffers from high blood pressure, diabetes and coronary heart disease, after reimbursement of all the drugs and treatment costs added together to more than 3,000 yuan per month.
On May 19, 2020, Guo Xuewei's father, Guo Guoguo, who is nearly 70 years old, went to the mountain to collect apricot cores and sell them for money in order to raise money for his wife to see a doctor. Apricot core is a Chinese medicinal material, and it can only be sold for more than 10 yuan a day. Uncle Guo unfortunately fell on the mountain in the process of picking up apricot cores, his ribs were almost all broken, and his thoracic vertebrae were also fractured.
At that time, after Uncle Guo was sent to the hospital, the doctor issued a critical illness notice, after rescue, the life was finally saved, after reimbursement, the family spent more than 30,000 yuan, and now the elderly are still in rehabilitation treatment. Guo Xuewei's four daughters are all in school, and the children's living expenses and learning materials cost about 2,000 yuan per month. Pictured is Guo Xuewei and his daughter.
"I've been downsizing, and if I get more honey from the hive, there will be excess honey and I can't sell it at home." Guo Xuewei said that now his own beekeeping can earn up to about 5,000 yuan a year, if the sales are not a problem, he is very confident to expand the scale of honey production, earn more money to support the family.
"I don't understand the Internet, and I can't sell it online, so I can only sell some honey in pieces." Faced with the dilemma that honey cannot be sold, Guo Xuewei is very helpless, he said bitterly, there is technology but no market, and the accumulation of 20 years of beekeeping technology is equal to waste. The picture shows Guo Xuewei reading a book on beekeeping.
Nowadays, life at home is very difficult, and the family's life depends on Guo Xuewei alone. Because beekeeping does not earn money, Guo Xuewei also has to go out to do odd jobs, but the money earned by beekeeping and casual work cannot take care of the expenses at home and the medical expenses of his parents. Guo Xuewei counted on someone to come and buy his honey every day, and when the honey was sold, there was hope for the family. (Editor/Suri) For more details, please pay attention to the headline number: Photojournalist Micro-Publication. Original works, unauthorized, it is strictly forbidden to reprint in any form, infringement will be investigated!