Lipu taro, a perennial herbaceous plant of the Araceae family, has a rough outer skin and a betel nut pattern in the inside, also known as betel nut taro, known for its soft and glutinous fragrance, and was selected into the list of protected products of China's geographical indications and agricultural products in 2005 and 2015 respectively.
"Our taro, each of them is the texture of this betel nut flower, come to my live broadcast room, take a picture and give you the price of the origin!"
At present, Lipu taro, a national geographical indication protected product in Lipu City, Guilin, Guangxi, is in the peak season for listing. In the video accounts of many e-commerce platforms, the cries of Lipu taro farmers have sounded, and in the green fields, in the beautiful scenery like the mountains and rivers of Guilin, the swaying of taro leaves and the aroma of the earth are all over the screen, calling on foodie netizens to move to the live broadcast rooms of each house, and take an order and try it at the "floor price".
Lipu taro, known as the "best taro in taro" with its soft and glutinous fragrance, was selected into the list of protected products of China's geographical indications and agricultural products in 2005 and 2015 respectively. As early as the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, this local specialty suitable for cultivation in high temperature and humid areas was listed as the first choice of tribute in Guangxi, and there is a written history of artificial cultivation in Lipu for more than 400 years.
Over the past 45 years of reform and opening up, taro farmers in Lipu, Guangxi Province have gone from being assigned to responsible fields, getting up early to touch the black land, to increasing production and income through technological innovation, exploring scientific planting in line with the protection of origin, and then actively adapting to the current "production-consumption docking" model of "good things on the cloud" and "traceable to the source", and have embarked on an unprecedented road of concept change.
"Plant a responsible field, don't forget to learn technology"
"Compared with before, the family has their own responsibility field and the right to manage the land, and their enthusiasm is definitely different!" Su Longhe, 58, a native of Anjiang Village, Licheng Town, Lipu City, is a well-known local taro grower in Lipu.
In 1981, Lipu County started the exploration of the household contract responsibility system in the rural areas, and agricultural production entered a new stage of development, with bumper grain harvests year after year, and the total grain output of the county in 1989 was 3.18 times that of 1949. At the same time, the implementation of the policy of "adjustment, reform, rectification and improvement" promoted the emergence of the local food industry and established a number of canned food factories. Lipu, which was withdrawn from the county and established as a city in 2018, has today developed into a famous food city in the south with "sugar oranges everywhere and taro grown by every family".
Su Longhe, who loves books in his bones, neither follows the footsteps of others to go to the sea to do business, nor is he satisfied with the farming mode of "oxen pulling plows, hoeing loose soil, and hand-planting seedlings" day after day. After two to three years of research and practice, he became the first farmer in Lipu County to test the plastic film covering technology at that time.
"If you don't read, you can't do it, there's a doorway in every industry. Su Longhe told reporters that in addition to planting rice, he also planted taro, water chestnuts and fruits, such as taro can be planted deeper, and sugar oranges are suitable for paddy fields. In practice and thinking, he explored the technology of water plugging dry pipe, which is not only convenient for planting taro, but also suitable for planting sugar oranges in rotation.
In 2019, the planting base in Qingshan Town and Xiuren Town, Lipu City has exceeded 200 acres, and for the first time, drones were used to fertilize the fields, which greatly improved labor efficiency, with an average yield of about 4,000 catties per mu. With the endowment of hard work and diligence, Su Longhe not only grows taro with large size and uniform appearance, but also has a high yield, becoming a well-known planting expert, attracting and leading a group of villagers to work with him. Today, the annual planting area of Lipu taro in Lipu City exceeds 50,000 mu, the output is expected to exceed 100,000 tons this year, and the output value of planting, processing and sales is expected to exceed 2 billion yuan.
"Protecting Geographical Indications and Lighting Up Thousands of Homes"
In 2000, Guangxi Guilin Lipu taro was awarded the National Geographical Indication Certification Trademark, in 2005 it was certified by the former General Administration of Quality Supervision, in 2015 it was certified by the former Ministry of Agriculture for Agricultural Products Geographical Indication, in 2019 it was certified as a green agricultural product, in 2021 it was certified as a high-quality "positive" seal by the Hong Kong Certification Center, and in 2022, the brand value of Lipu taro was assessed at 1.418 billion yuan.
The products are named after geographical names and are protected by regional patents, aiming to improve the quality of characteristic products and promote regional economic development, which is not only an important starting point for rural revitalization, but also a common rule of international trade. The introduction of GI-specific indications means that taro farmers who use this designation on their own products must follow higher standards and norms throughout the planting chain in relation to location, cultivation, harvesting, storage, organoleptic, physical and chemical indicators.
By the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan, a total of 2,391 GI products had been protected in mainland China, and 9,479 market entities had used GI special indications, and by the end of 2022, a total of 2,495 GI products had been approved, more than 23,000 market entities had approved the use of GI special indications, and 29 national GI product protection demonstration zones had been approved, covering 15 central and western provinces, further expanding the scale of the GI industry. Among them, more than 8,000 agricultural products across the country have been protected and registered as China's geographical indication products and agricultural product geographical indications. As of February 2022, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has registered a total of 3,510 geographical indications for agricultural products.
"In the process of receiving training, exchanging and learning Xi, I can learn better planting techniques and management methods, so that the fruits grown in the field are of better quality, which is obviously a matter of benefiting myself and the people and the country." In Su Longhe's view, the people around him who are interested in large-scale planting will not disappoint their investment as long as they deal with the land, manage with their hearts, and take a long-term view. As a result, regularly participating in GI special promotion meetings, training sessions and exchange meetings organized by the local government has become an important agenda for Sulong and other large growers in the past few years.
It is worth mentioning that in 2006, Lipu County launched the "Ten Thousand Lights" project promoted by the former Ministry of Agriculture. The technical application of frequency vibration insecticidal lamp pest control as the main content has radiated to all kinds of major crops in the county through the harmless treatment technology of pests and diseases, significantly improved the level of agricultural standardization, quality and safety of agricultural products, effectively reduced pesticide crop residues and environmental pollution, and opened up a new way to increase agricultural income. Historical data show that in 2011, 75,000 farmers in 128 administrative villages in Lipu County applied more than 2,000 tons of rice, Lipu taro, horseshoe and other crops through the implementation of soil testing and formula fertilization, saving 49.0203 million yuan in cost savings. Nowadays, in the whole county, a consensus has been formed on planting green pollution-free agricultural products, optimizing the fertilization structure according to soil conditions, and taking the road of ecological agricultural development.
It is in the process of large-scale and pollution-free planting that Su Longhe gradually embarked on the road of enterprise management, transforming from an authentic farmer to a farmer entrepreneur. Through dealing with all parties in the market, especially in recent years, he has gradually realized that "geographical indications" are intangible assets for enterprise development, giving his agricultural products a unique regional charm and a "golden key" to expand the market.
"Good things go to the cloud, traceability has identity"
With the rise of e-commerce, GI agricultural products have quickly entered the public eye. "In the past, I was waiting for buyers from all over the world to come to collect taro, but now there are three channels, some of which are sent to e-commerce platforms, some of which are sent to food processing factories and buyers, and some of which are sold through their own live broadcast rooms and short videos. Sister Mei, a farmer in Lipu, Guangxi, who has been planting taro for 30 years, is a newly shortlisted "delivery person", and the 5-kilogram taro is sold in her own video account and live broadcast room. The video is well done, and the shooting scene is also an attractive landscape and countryside.
Since 2018, with the rapid development of social e-commerce, the rise of short video platforms and the popularization of 5G networks, live streaming has become popular and entered an explosive period, and geographical indication products have also taken advantage of this trend. Statistics in 2020 show that the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region launched the "Geographical Indications Help Poverty Alleviation Series Live Broadcast" activity, selling landmark products such as cantaloupe online, with 12,375 people participating in the live broadcast, with cumulative sales reaching 1.08 million yuan.
"It is necessary to open up the 'first kilometer' of agricultural product sales, let 'good things go to the cloud', and promote the large-scale 'production and marketing docking' of high-quality agricultural products. In October this year, Wang Jian, senior vice president of Pinduoduo, proposed at the 3rd China New E-commerce Conference that the company will connect with thousands of small-scale suppliers and form a large market with direct connection of agricultural product production and marketing in the cloud, so as to solve the problem of scattered operation and insufficient scale of small farmers, and run through the whole agricultural link of production, supply chain, circulation and consumption to promote the matching of supply and demand.
Open the live broadcast channel of Douyin Mall, many local famous and high-quality specialties appear in turn during the live broadcast period of each family, and some stores are simply on the side of the screen in the live broadcast room, allowing netizens to see the huge logo of China's geographical indications and agricultural product geographical indications;
Su Longhe told reporters that he began to cooperate with Guangxi Food Source Agricultural Group this year, which used traceability technology and traceability code to restore the "true identity" of "national geographical indication" agricultural products. Relying on the source quality control team of the Foodsource Helping Agriculture Group, the whole process of picking, sorting, testing and packaging of Lipu taro can be transparently managed, so that the agricultural products of Sulong and other agricultural craftsmen can become "products with identity", and take this as a starting point to truly protect the agricultural products with geographical indications and help farmers in the core producing areas increase their income.
In accordance with the guiding ideology of "green orientation" and "standard guidance" in the four major actions of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, "full digitalization" and "identity identification" are the key words, and they are the focus of the current work. For example, Gannan Navel Orange uses "blockchain traceability + certificate" to achieve full traceability, helping the brand value to exceed 60 billion yuan.
In the short video of Lipu taro farmers' "bringing goods", behind the green taro fields is the beautiful scenery of Guilin's landscape.
Source: Financial Times Client Reporter: Fang Hua Editor: Duan Jiaxi Email: [email protected]