Zhou Lifang (Deputy Secretary-General of Shaoguan Prose and Poetry Society)
No matter which township I go to, I will have a habit of paying attention to what trees are planted on the mountain, whether they grow well, whether there are any diseases and insect pests. For example, the northernmost village in Guangdong Province, Dazhushan Village in Xiushui Town, borders Guanxi Township in Yizhang County, Hunan Province, with typical karst hilly landforms, limestone dissolution mountains, exposed stones everywhere, rugged surface, and very poor soil; the most important thing is that it is in a state of water shortage all year round. What kind of trees can be planted? After I've seen large expanses of pine, fir, and broad-leaved forests, I'm a little embarrassed. The altitude is about 500 meters, which is not high, because the Nanling National Forest Park, which is much higher than here, has a rare "blue pine" of 10,000 acres. Fortunately, sporadic dwarf pines, shrubs, and weeds add greenery to the rocks of different shapes, and they have a vibrant appearance.
In Shaoguan in August, the heat was unbearable, especially when I stepped down from the medium-sized bus of the wind group, sweat quickly came out. Coming to the Lingfeng oil tea base, only to see a ridge of oil tea trees lush green and rich into the forest, dense fruits hanging on the branches, under the sunlight, the fruit shines, it seems particularly cute.
It turns out that the camellia oleifera tree can grow so well under such a vicious mountain condition, and can also produce so many camellia oleifera fruits, which not only updates my knowledge base, but also makes me can't help but have some reverence for the camellia oleifera tree. So in the interview with the boss Zhou Lingfeng, I gradually learned some situations:
From businessmen to growers
Zhou Lingfeng, who had settled in Shenzhen and settled down, the owner of a large company, he never expected that one day he would return to his homeland and contribute to the revitalization of the countryside, nor did he expect that he would one day become the leader of the oil tea industry in the village.
He said that at that time, he decided to return to his hometown to start a business in late 2012, and after Beijing hastily handled official business, he returned to the Shenzhen Investment Promotion Association without stopping, and Ou Duochun, then secretary of the party committee of Xiushui Town in Lechang City, gave a detailed introduction to the changes, existing resources and difficulties that have taken place in Xiushui Town since the reform and opening up of Xiushui Town, Lechang City.
Xiushui Town has Liaosi River, Ziyang Academy, Golden Bridge, True Dragon Immortal, Xiongguan Canal, Xijing Ancient Road and other monuments, outstanding people, Wuhua Tianbao, and very deep cultural heritage. The most important thing is that Xiushui is the place where he grows himself, Zhou Lingfeng thinks that he can make some contributions to his hometown, and the whole person is like playing chicken blood. At this time, his family poured cold water on him, thinking that now that the family is stable and the economy is stable, he suddenly has to give up the company he is running and go to the unfamiliar planting, unless it is "brain water". In order to persuade his family, Zhou Lingfeng began to go on a field trip, from Shenzhen to Xiushui, from Xiushui to Shenzhen, I can't remember how many back and forth, and finally decided to invest in planting oil tea based on a large stack of inspection data.
Why did you decide to invest in a project to grow camellia oleifera? Zhou Lingfeng said that Dazhushan Village belongs to the typical central subtropical monsoon climate, rich in light, heat and resources, with an average annual temperature of 19.6 °C, a mild climate and sufficient sunshine. The planting plots examined are sitting west to east, with a slope of 15 degrees, the soil is mainly red soil, the soil layer is deep, the organic matter content is high, the minerals are rich, although the rainfall is small, but such mountain conditions are precisely the most suitable geographical ecological environment for the growth of camellia oleifera. Because camellia oleifera is relatively extensive, it is hardy and drought-resistant, and there is no pollution source in the surrounding area of 30 kilometers in diameter. Moreover, camellia oleifera is an evergreen shrub, evergreen in all seasons, and generally closed into a forest for 6-10 years after planting, which can green barren mountains, improve soil, improve forest coverage, and prevent soil erosion.
In the final analysis, it is the people who work hard that they can do the work so carefully. At the beginning of 2013, it began to register and establish the "Lechang Lingfeng Oil Tea Planting Professional Cooperative", through the acquisition of Dazhu mountain oil tea forest base, Jingziao oil tea garden and Yangmei mountain oil tea garden more than 4600 acres, through the lease of farmers idle barren hillside planting oil tea more than 1900 acres, the scale reached 5680 acres. Provide jobs at the doorstep of the villagers, from the company owner to the village oil tea grower seamlessly.
From layman to technician
Sometimes you don't push yourself, you don't know that you can be so good.
In fact, since Zhou Lingfeng inspected it, he already had the basic literacy of being a "technician", but he didn't realize it. When he inspected Dazhu Mountain, he took soil and water to the Guangdong Provincial Forestry Institute for testing, and after several back and forth, until the indicators and elements such as soil, soil quality and water quality met the standards for planting oil tea, his heart was considered to be solid.
He bought an excavator, easily learned to drive, flat soil digging belts; he learned to design, scientific planning irrigation canals, drainage ditches, machine farming principles and tea garden trails. He thinks a lot, he wants to build the tea garden into a standardized demonstration oil tea garden; he thinks far ahead, he wants to wait for the oil tea garden to be full of abundant funds, and continue to build the oil tea garden into a tourist health resort, forming a flower viewing, leisure, oil tea garden health base and rural tourism.
Speaking of oil tea planting, pollination, nutrition, insect control, picking, processing, Zhou Lingfeng talked about it, from his dark face, he could not see that he had been the boss of the business field for many years, and he felt no different from ordinary villagers. When he talked about these processes, he was like a wonderful teacher teaching on the three-foot podium, and he couldn't help but want to listen to it more.
Can you return to your hometown to start a business, give up the original favorable conditions, and start everything from scratch, how easy is it to talk about? When Zhou Lingfeng said this, he couldn't help but sigh with emotion. In the past eight years, I have stumbled, stumbled, thought about giving up, worried, and struggled. He started from a small boss with 6 properties in Shenzhen, more than 7 million yuan in the company's working capital, and more than 1 million personal demand deposits, to only 1 property in Shenzhen, and the company and individuals have become debtors with more than 6 million yuan in debt. However, when he thought of the expectant eyes of more than 100 honest dazhushan villagers, he remembered that perhaps because of his departure, more than a dozen poor households would lose their jobs and return to poverty, and the children of poor families would drop out of school because of his departure... Driven by responsibility and responsibility, he gritted his teeth and persevered, and continued to run the bank in his personal name to ask for loans, so that the cooperative could operate normally. Especially in 2019, the independent production of white flower tea oil reached 13.6 tons, achieved operating income of 5.2782 million yuan, net profit of 3.2586 million yuan, output value double growth, he was relieved, proudly smiled, all this effort was not in vain after all.
Innovate cooperation models to promote poverty alleviation and revitalization
Zhou Lingfeng said that since the establishment of the company, the government departments have given a lot of support, especially the forestry and agricultural departments, took the initiative to inform the preferential policies for the cultivation of oil tea, and took the initiative to handle planting subsidies for him.
The oil tea industry basically relies on manual completion of various processes, planting, tending, daily management, picking and collection, shelling and drying, processing and pressing and other processes, requiring a large number of labor. After Zhou Lingfeng established the cooperative, he continuously optimized the cooperation model, and finally adopted the business model of "cooperative + company + base + farmer", and adopted a combination of "first leasing and then shareholding" and "labor service shareholding", and actively guided farmers to invest in the land management right into the cooperative. First sign a lease agreement with the farmer on the barren mountain, and then decide whether to enter the shares after the farmer sees that the cooperative has stable and good economic benefits and good prospects. In this way, it can not only solve the problem of labor, but also lead the villagers to get rich together, which is really a good win-win method.
He said that the land area of the shareholding is 3,280 mu, of which 2,560 mu are non-contracted land; a total of 105 villagers have been absorbed into the shares, of which 12 poor households have long invested in land management rights, and 18 poor households have invested in labor services. And these 18 poor households, Zhou Lingfeng used them as a base to arrange employment, and achieved poverty alleviation that year.
In order to ensure that the poor households that have been lifted out of poverty do not return to poverty, Zhou Lingfeng said that after handling the company's affairs, he often patiently explained new knowledge, culture, concepts and new agricultural sciences to the poor households who were employed in the company, and taught them to use new agricultural machinery by hand. He also often said that in order to truly lift poor households out of poverty, it is not only necessary to give them "blood transfusions", but the most important thing is to strengthen their "hematopoietic" function. That's what he said and that's what he did. In the 8 years that Zhou Lingfeng came here from the metropolis of Shenzhen, he not only helped poor households, but most importantly, he "helped zhi" and "helped wisdom" for them, and constantly stimulated their endogenous motivation to take the initiative to get rid of poverty.
Through years of efforts, Lingfeng Oil Tea Base has driven the average income of poor households to increase by 3,000 yuan / year. The farmer whose land is invested in the land multiplied by the land lease price equals the amount of the equity. At the same time, in the first five years of signing the land lease contract, the company returns the farmer's land rent to the cooperative, and the cooperative returns the rent to the farmer; until the 6th year, it stops paying the farmer's land rent and converts it to a dividend, and the farmer participates in the profit distribution in the form of dividends. Villagers become shareholders, rents become shares, and farmers become "bosses."
Since the development of the cooperative, there are 105 members, more than 1,200 farmer households, and a radiation area of more than 12,000 mu; the total annual income has increased from the initial 360,000 yuan to 5.2782 million yuan, and the gross domestic product has reached 35% of the total output value of local agricultural production. The cooperative was rated as "National Forestry Demonstration Cooperative and Guangdong Provincial Farmers' Cooperative Demonstration", "China Green Environmental Protection Product Planting Demonstration Base", "Provincial Forestry Demonstration Cooperative", "Guangdong Province Forest economy demonstration base", and registered trademarks "Zhenxiang" and "Gourmet Money" and "Gourmet" brand camellia oil.
Tea husks and tea meal that turn waste into treasure
Li Shizhen's "Compendium of Materia Medica" records: "Tea oil is cool, cool blood stops bleeding, clears heat and detoxifies." Indications for the treatment of liver blood loss, deworming. Good for the stomach and intestines, clear eyes. The "Dictionary of Chinese Traditional Chinese Medicine" is even recorded: "Tea oil is not only rich in nutrients, but also has the medicinal value of Chinese herbal medicines, which can be summarized as: enhancing the elasticity and toughness of blood vessels, delaying atherosclerosis, increasing gastrointestinal absorption function, promoting endocrine glandular hormone secretion, preventing and treating neurological decline, and improving human immunity." "Tea oil, as we all know, has so many benefits, what about the remaining tea husks and tea meal after the production of tea seed oil?" In my childhood memory, the tea shells were discarded, and the tea meal could also be used to wash the hair, but because the tea meal was small, it took a long time to rinse the head after washing, which took too much time and too much trouble.
Zhou Lingfeng said that the random stacking of tea shells and tea meal will cause deterioration, which can easily cause land pollution. I smiled and didn't expect that Boss Zhou was also an environmentalist. He said that no matter how big or small a responsible enterprise is, all production behaviors must take the protection of the environment as the starting point, and only such an enterprise can stand firm and go far.
Next, Zhou Lingfeng introduced his current plan to implement a comprehensive development project for the industrialization of camellia oleifera. He said that due to the backwardness of traditional experience, solidified thinking and technology, most of the growers' camellia oleifera products are mainly based on tea oil, and the residue after oil extraction of camellia oleifera seeds is basically discarded without treatment. This is a waste, in fact, from the shell of camellia oleifera to tea residue and waste residue, all of their companies can be used, and a tea seed can be used 16 times.
We all know that after the application of chemical fertilizers to crops, it is easy to cause environmental problems such as soil fertility decline, compaction, acidification, and excessive nitrate content of crops and groundwater, one link after another, these environmental problems lead to a series of very serious ecological and environmental problems such as eutrophication of water bodies and air pollution, which seriously threaten our health. The main theme of this project is to make organic fertilizer through the fermentation of tea husks and tea meal, the biggest advantage is environmental protection, compared to animal organic fertilizer odorless, but also to improve the soil structure, increase soil beneficial flora, disease resistance and insecticide and other characteristics, effectively reduce the heavy metal content of soil and planted crops. In addition, tea meal organic fertilizer can save the company nearly 2 million yuan per year to purchase sheep manure in Inner Mongolia.
According to preliminary estimates, the annual output of tea hulls and tea meal bio-organic fertilizers of 100,000 tons will reach an output value of 300 million yuan. If it is sold locally to large growers and farmers, it can greatly reduce the cost of using fertilizers and pesticides and increase production. It is understood that there have been successful cases in some places, the use of tea husks and tea meal bio-organic fertilizers for fruit and vegetable planting, which can increase fruit yields by 20% and melon yields by 20%-30%.
Zhou Lingfeng said that in addition to producing organic fertilizers, this project also uses tea meal for deep processing, produces tea saponins, polishing powder and feed, uses tea husks for deep processing, and produces activated carbon, furfural products, etc., with great prospects for development. It turned out that a small oil tea seed was full of treasures. He said that he is now thinking about how to build a tea husk and tea hull organic fertilizer processing plant, if it can be built, it will drive more than 450 farmers in Xiushui Town to employment, and the per capita annual income will increase by more than 30,000 yuan.
When I look at the lush oil tea forest, densely hung with green fruits, listening to Zhou Lingfeng tell how the villagers have turned into "bosses" over the years and leveraged the oil tea industry to achieve employment at the doorstep of their homes, I hope that he will become more and more stable on the road of rural revitalization.