【Reading Tips】
In order to allow practitioners to accurately grasp the relevant information and reduce price fluctuations, not long ago, the China Vegetable Association released an industrial map of key vegetable varieties, and the first batch of industrial maps released included garlic, ginger and broccoli. In the map of China's garlic industry, Daming County in Hebei Province is listed.
As a large garlic planting county in Hebei Province, the planting area of Daming garlic is stable at more than 120,000 mu all year round, with an annual output of more than 160,000 tons of garlic. It is worth mentioning that most of the garlic produced by the daimyo is not supplied to the market as commercial garlic, but as a garlic seed to Jinxiang, Shandong, Qixian, Henan and other large domestic garlic growing counties.
It can be said that the "maiden home" of garlic, a large number of high-quality commodities in China, is in the daimyo.
On May 19, 2022, Daimyo County organized an on-site demonstration meeting of garlic mechanization in Wanzhong Village, Wandi Town, and the garlic harvester was carrying out garlic mining operations. Photo by Hebei Daily correspondent Xue Zhipeng
From growing garlic to selling garlic seeds
On December 21, 2023, Zhangzhuang Village, Wandi Town, Daming County, Handan City. Towards noon, the temperature was below -10°C.
The farmland at the edge of the village is still covered with heavy snow, and there is no end in sight.
Zhang Mingfeng, a garlic farmer, walked into the farmland, bent down, and forcefully pushed the thick snow to both sides, and a piece of mulch film was finally revealed. Lifting a piece of mulch, he plucked a sprout of garlic and examined it carefully.
"Not long ago, there was a sudden heavy snowfall, and I also encountered low temperature weather that I had not seen for more than 10 years, which had a great impact on the growth of garlic. Fortunately, garlic farmers generally cover garlic with two layers of mulch before winter, which can reduce the impact of low temperatures. As a large grower with more than 10 years of experience in garlic planting and contracting more than 60 acres of land, Zhang Mingfeng is particularly concerned about the current growth of garlic.
Guo Xuepin, a 47-year-old garlic farmer in Zhangwangzhuang Village, Jinjindi Town, Daming County, also pays attention to the growth of garlic in low temperature weather. Guo Xuepin, who has more than 20 years of experience in garlic planting, admits that he has never had such snowfall and low temperature before, so he has no experience to learn from, so he can only wait for the weather to warm up before carrying out field management.
In Daimyo, there are many garlic farmers like Zhang Mingfeng and Guo Xuepin. As a key county of national vegetable production and the county with the largest garlic planting area in Hebei Province, the planting area of Daimyo's garlic is maintained at more than 120,000 mu all year round, and there are tens of thousands of farmers engaged in garlic planting.
It is worth mentioning that most of the daimyo garlic is not sold as commercial garlic, and more than 75% of its total output is used as garlic seeds and sold to the main garlic producing areas in China, such as Qixian in Henan, Jinxiang in Shandong, and Pizhou in Jiangsu. Therefore, it can be said that Daimyo is the "maiden home" of China's high-quality garlic. The quality and yield of Daimyo garlic seeds also affect the quality and price of domestic commercial garlic to a certain extent.
How did this plain county, located in the southern Hebei region, become a major county in the production of high-quality garlic seeds in the mainland?
"Located in the southeast of Hebei Province, Daimyo has more than 1.2 million acres of arable land and is a traditional agricultural county. The Daimyo area has a long history of garlic cultivation, and historical records record that local farmers began to grow garlic in the Northern Song Dynasty. Zhang Xisuo, a first-level chief clerk of the Daiming County Agriculture and Rural Bureau, introduced.
However, until the reform and opening up, the cultivation area of daimyo garlic was relatively small. "By the end of the 70s of the 20th century, the planting area of daimyo garlic was less than 10,000 acres. Zhang Xisuo said.
In the early 80s of the 20th century, with the increasing number of contacts with other places, the daimyo introduced hybrid red garlic. Red-skinned garlic has the advantages of large size, high allicin content, low water content, storage and transportation resistance, etc., with the improvement of planting efficiency, the planting area of Daimyo garlic has also increased year by year.
However, until the early 90s of the 20th century, the daimyo was still mainly engaged in the cultivation of commercial garlic. The transition from commercial garlic to garlic began by chance.
Xing Deli, a 54-year-old villager from Cui Yue Village, Wandi Town, Daming County, started the garlic sprout business in the 90s of the 20th century. Xing Deli said that around 1997, he often used a cart to pull garlic sprouts to Jinxiang, Shandong Province, and rented a cold storage in the local area for storage and sale. In his recollection, Jinxiang, which has now become an important garlic production base in China, used local garlic varieties of relatively average quality at that time - light red skin, small size, strong spicy taste, and low yield, resulting in low income for local growers.
"At that time, the garlic sprouts I pulled were sometimes less than a truckload, so in order to improve the transportation efficiency, I would pull some local red garlic with some daimyo local garlic. Unexpectedly, many local garlic farmers fell in love with this garlic as soon as they saw it and bought it as a garlic seed. Xing Deli said.
In the second year, the garlic farmers in Jinxiang were pleasantly surprised to find that the garlic grown with the famous red-skinned garlic was not only large, but also resistant to sunlight and storage, and the spicy taste was pure and not irritating, and the market price was several cents more expensive per catty than the original variety. As soon as it was passed on to ten, ten to hundred, the garlic farmers in Jinxiang, who were familiar with Xing Deli, began to ask for garlic seeds when they saw him, and some even paid a deposit early.
The reputation of "good quality garlic seeds" soon spread from Jinxiang in Shandong to Henan, Jiangsu and other provinces. With the market demand, the cultivation area of daimyo garlic has expanded rapidly, and the use has also changed from mainly commercial garlic to mainly garlic species.
Today, the annual output of Daimyo's garlic is more than 160,000 tons, the total output of garlic sprouts is 42,000 tons, and the annual output value is more than 1 billion yuan. It can be said that many high-quality red-skinned commercial garlic that people buy in the market have the excellent genes of the famous garlic species. Zhang Xisuo said.
In May 2023, garlic farmers in Dalong Village, Daotou Township, Daming County, harvest garlic sprouts. Photo by Hebei Daily correspondent Zhou Shaozong
From garlic farmer to garlic merchant
Why is the quality of the garlic seeds grown by the daimyo so good?
"The excellent quality of Daimyo garlic is closely related to the unique natural conditions of Daimyo. On December 22, 2023, in an office of the Daiming County Agriculture and Rural Bureau, Zhang Xisuo pointed to a map of Daiming County on the wall and unlocked the "secret" of Daiming garlic seeds to the author.
"Here, in the northeastern area of Daimyo Prefecture, there are five townships of Wandi, Jindi, Hongmiao, Yingzhen, and Jintan, which are concentrated planting areas for Daimyo garlic. Zhang Xisuo drew a general range on the map with his hand.
Zhang Xisuo introduced that these five townships are located in the west of the Wei River, which is geographically the edge of the alluvial fan of the Zhanghe River, with heavy clay soil, which is called silt by the locals, which is very suitable for the growth of garlic. Years of planting experience have shown that only the best quality of garlic grown in silt soil in Daimyo Prefecture is the best, and the quality of garlic grown in other areas has decreased significantly.
In addition to the soil conditions, the Daimyo region has four distinct seasons, moderate rainfall, and a long frost-free period, and compared with the garlic producing areas of Henan, Shandong, Jiangsu and other provinces, the Daimyo is geographically located further north, so the garlic varieties produced here are relatively frost-resistant.
In addition to the natural conditions, good transportation conditions are also conducive to the circulation and spread of daimyo garlic. Daming County is located at the junction of Hebei, Shandong, and Henan provinces, and is adjacent to Shandong and Henan provinces, which are large garlic growing provinces in the east and south, respectively.
The cultivation of garlic not only drove garlic farmers to get rich, but also gave birth to a group of garlic brokers who made a living by pouring garlic and selling garlic. Many of them also have the dual identity of garlic farmers and garlic merchants.
As one of the earliest garlic brokers of the Daimyo, Xing Deli witnessed the process of the Daimyo garlic merchants from scratch and from less to more. "I started the garlic seed business in the late 90s of the 20th century, when there were more garlic growers and fewer garlic brokers. Later, as the fame of the daimyo garlic seed grew, the demand for trading increased, and more and more people did the garlic business. Xing Deli said.
As a large garlic grower with more than 20 years of planting experience, Guo Xuepin has transformed into a garlic broker and has also rich experience.
"As early as around 2000, I became a garlic broker in addition to growing garlic. At that time, the fame of the daimyo garlic seed was already very famous, and every garlic harvest season, merchants from Shandong, Henan and other places were in an endless stream. Guo Xuepin said.
Guo Xuepin told me that around 2004, Zhangwangzhuang Village, one of the core garlic producing areas, even spontaneously formed a "garlic trading street". "During the peak period of garlic trading, the villagers of Zhangwangzhuang can earn seven or eight hundred yuan a day by using only a 'three-horse cart' to pull garlic to the surrounding villages and resell it to merchants. ”
"In 2023, as a broker, I will send out about 2 million catties of daimyo garlic to customers, which is equivalent to selling more than 600 acres of garlic based on 3,000 catties of garlic per mu of land, which is much more than the garlic I grow myself. Guo Xuepin said.
With the continuous expansion of the planting area of Daimyo garlic seeds, many garlic farmers and garlic merchants have gotten rid of the previous "going it alone" and began to explore new ways of win-win cooperation.
Wang Qinghe, a garlic farmer in Houzhangzhuang Village, Wandi Town, Daming County, planted 100 acres of garlic, because he could not meet the needs of customers, he cooperated with more than 40 farmers in surrounding villages to establish a "garlic breeding and production consortium", and planted a total of 800 acres of garlic seeds, and adopted a unified supply, unified purchase, and unified storage to ensure quality.
"My customers are mainly from Jinxiang, Shandong and Pizhou, Jiangsu, and have cooperated for more than ten years, giving them stable supply every year. If there is no daimyo garlic seed, many local stores will not be able to sell the goods. Wang Qinghe said.
Whether you grow garlic or sell garlic, you are most afraid of garlic price fluctuations. What should I do when the price of garlic drops?
"You can build a garlic refrigerated storage to store garlic, which can not only be sold off-peak, but also ensure year-round supply. Zhang Xisuo said.
In the garlic trading market in Jinjindi Town, Daming County, which has not been completed for a long time, the author saw that a number of intelligent cold storages have been put into use. Guo Xuepeng, vice president of the Daming County Garlic Seed Association, told the author that there are garlic sprouts and garlic seeds stored by garlic farmers and garlic merchants in the cold storage.
"These garlic sprouts are ready to be sold before the Spring Festival when the price is high, and some garlic seeds can also be sold as garlic yellow material around the Spring Festival, and the price is higher than selling them as garlic seeds. Guo Xuepeng said.
It is understood that at present, there are more than 30 garlic trading markets in Daming County, including the garlic trading market in Jinjindi Town and the trading market of Hebei Xiaorui Agricultural Development Co., Ltd. in Yingzhen, with an annual trading volume of 70,000 tons, accounting for more than 40% of the total garlic output in the county.
On December 21, 2023, in Wandi Town, Daming County, the teaching and research practice base of Hebei University of Engineering was covered with heavy snow. Photo by Hebei Daily reporter Wang Sida
From traditional to modern planting
On the afternoon of December 21, 2023, next to a rural road in Wandi Township, Daimyo Prefecture, there was a farmland fenced by a blue fence.
Although it is covered in a thick layer of snow like other farmlands, the neatly arranged blue signs on the ridges of the fields show that it is different. A staff member of the Daming County Agriculture and Rural Affairs Bureau told me that this farmland is the teaching and scientific research practice base of Hebei University of Engineering. The total area of the base is about 150 acres, and 21 varieties of garlic are currently planted on 50 acres.
"These garlic varieties are excellent local varieties that have been introduced from all over the country, with the aim of selecting and breeding good varieties that are most suitable for local cultivation in Daimyo through experimentation. Wang Chunfeng, director of the Agricultural Technology Extension Station of the Daming County Agriculture and Rural Bureau, introduced.
Why is it necessary to introduce and test garlic varieties from other places?
Wang Chunfeng introduced that the first major development of the daimyo garlic industry began with the introduction of hybrid red garlic from other places to replace local white garlic. Nowadays, although hybrid red-skinned garlic is widely cultivated, garlic farmers grow garlic on a piece of land all year round, and the land becomes thinner and thinner, resulting in a decline in garlic yield and quality. In addition, red-skinned garlic has been cultivated for decades, and some garlic farmers have reported that the variety has deteriorated, the market recognition has declined, and the quality of garlic needs to be improved urgently.
In order to solve these problems, some garlic growers have previously explored improved seed breeding and soil improvement, but the results are average due to limited capacity. The Agriculture and Rural Bureau of Daming County has also organized agricultural technicians to enter the village for many times, carry out technical training and technical guidance in the garlic concentrated planting area, promote the standardized planting technology of garlic, and improve the level of standardized production.
"However, in the selection and breeding of garlic varieties, there has been no breakthrough due to the limited scientific research strength at the grassroots level. Wang Chunfeng said frankly.
Garlic quality improvement, colleges and universities participated. Since 2021, under the leadership of Wang Liping, Dean of the School of Ecology of Hebei University of Engineering, the South Hebei Vegetable Comprehensive Improvement Team and researchers from Hebei University of Engineering have carried out garlic detoxification and introduction screening work based on the foundation of the famous garlic industry and focusing on the development of green garlic advantageous production areas.
The team has introduced more than 30 excellent local varieties across the country, and after years of comparative tests, 1 high-yield and early-maturing green-cap garlic variety (code Y-5), 2 high-yield white garlic varieties (code Y-13 and Y-18), and 1 high-yield purple-skinned garlic variety (code Y-3), some varieties have been trialed in Daimyo.
To realize the modernization of garlic planting, it depends on the breeding of new varieties and the promotion of mechanization.
"Garlic money, it's not easy to take, it's either kneeling or crawling. When it comes to the difficulty of growing garlic, Han Zengwen, a garlic grower in Hanliudian Village, Wandi Town, Daming County, is deeply touched, "Compared with planting other crops, planting garlic is a hard job. ”
Why do you say that?" "Planting garlic often requires a cat to bend its waist, hunch its back, first take a tool to dig a ditch, plant the garlic cloves into the ditch one by one, and then bury it in the soil." More than 20,000 garlic cloves are planted on one acre of land, and after squatting for a long time, my legs can't stand it at all. Sow garlic down for a day, leg joints straight pain. Han Zengwen said.
Artificial garlic planting is not only tiring, but also inefficient. Han Zengwen told the author that in the garlic planting process, each adult laborer can only plant more than 3 points of land per day, and the labor cost of sowing 1 mu of garlic is as high as 600 yuan.
Labor is expensive and inefficient, so why can't large-scale mechanized planting be promoted like wheat?
Wang Chunfeng introduced, first of all, there is no deep integration of agricultural machinery and agronomy, especially the farmers garlic planting is not standardized, row spacing, plant spacing is inconsistent, resulting in harvesting machinery "unadaptable", can not be widely promoted and applied. Secondly, the soil texture of garlic planting varies greatly in various places, and machinery cannot be universally adapted.
There is also an important reason that when garlic is sown, the end of the germination must be facing upward, if it is crooked or poured, it will greatly affect the yield, and the positive germination rate of the current machine sowing is still a certain gap compared with the manual.
Although there are still many technical blockages in garlic machine sowing, half of the 100 acres of garlic sown by Han Zengwen's family in the fall of 2023 still chose mechanical operations.
"Labor is getting more and more expensive, and the garlic sowing period is very short, my family has 50 acres of land for autumn sowing and can't find enough workers, so I chose mechanical sowing. Han Zengwen said, "The machine can sow 10 to 15 acres a day, the efficiency is dozens of times that of manual labor, and the cost of sowing a day is only more than 200 yuan." ”
"This is the first time my family has used machine broadcasting, and I don't know what the harvest will be. If the final calculation and manual sowing is not much different, the proportion of machine sowing will continue to increase in the future, after all, with the planting area is getting larger and larger, mechanization is the development trend. Han Zengwen said.
In view of the problems exposed by existing machinery in garlic production, relevant departments and technical units are also tackling key problems.
In the waterfront community of Jinxiang Township, Huangjindi Town, Daming County, the open-field vegetable industry innovation team of the modern agricultural technology system of Hebei Province has built a 200-acre garlic full-process mechanized production demonstration base, focusing on exploring the mechanized planting mode combining agricultural machinery and agronomy.
"With the continuous promotion of improved breeding, mechanization and intensification, the business card of Daimyo garlic will become brighter and brighter. Zhang Xisuo said. (Hebei Daily reporter Wang Sida correspondent Feng Junbing)
■Reporter's observation
Make the "Daimyo Garlic Seed" signboard brighter
The planting area of Daimyo garlic ranks first in the province, and Daimyo garlic is even more famous in the industry. How to build on the existing advantages and polish the golden signboard of the famous garlic seed more brightly?
Industry insiders believe that first of all, it is necessary to further strengthen brand awareness and make the brand of Daming garlic more deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. The brand is like a business card of agricultural products, which can give agricultural products higher value and connotation, and make products more recognizable. From the point of view of quality alone, Daimyo garlic has the innate conditions to become a famous brand. For more than 20 years, Daimyo garlic has been widely introduced by famous domestic garlic planting areas such as Qixian County in Henan, Jinxiang in Shandong, and Pizhou in Jiangsu Province for its excellent quality. The test results of the Jinan Fruit and Vegetable and Products Quality Supervision, Inspection and Testing Center of the All-China Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives also show that the daiming garlic is excellent in terms of water content, sugar content, allicin content, disease resistance, etc.
At present, Shandong Cangshan garlic and Jinxiang garlic are national geographical indication products, Henan Qixian garlic is a national agricultural product geographical indication product, and Jiangsu Pizhou Liming garlic has been rated as China's famous brand agricultural products and Jiangsu famous brand products. Industry insiders believe that the daimyo can "learn from the experience" of these regions and apply for the daimyo garlic to become a national geographical indication product or a national agricultural product with a geographical indication as soon as possible. In this way, it can not only enhance the popularity of the product, but also carry out regional patent protection, delineate the scope of origin protection, and to a certain extent, put an end to the situation that other places sell under the banner of "Daimyo garlic".
At the same time, extending the industrial chain to achieve the integrated development of primary, secondary and tertiary industries is another effective way for the garlic industry to become bigger and stronger. At present, the daimyo garlic industry is still mainly planted and sold, except for one or two garlic processing enterprises, there are no other large-scale garlic deep processing enterprises, and the added value of products is relatively low.
In this regard, we can learn from the advanced experience of garlic counties such as Jinxiang in Shandong and Pizhou in Jiangsu.
As early as May 2009, Jinxiang planned to build a food industrial park in the economic development zone, with a total planning area of 43 square kilometers, of which the international garlic industrial park and biotechnology industrial park are important plates. At present, there are 128 garlic processing enterprises above designated size in Jinxiang County, with an annual processing capacity of 1.1 million tons, and more than 40 kinds of deep-processed products such as black garlic products, selenium garlic capsules, and garlic polysaccharides have been developed and launched.
In Pizhou, more than 300 garlic trading and processing enterprises have gathered in the garlic industry chain in Pizhou Modern Agricultural Industrial Park, and 5 centralized purchase markets and 1 regional logistics distribution center have been built, with an annual garlic trading volume of 1 million tons. Pizhou's garlic industry has formed a complete industrial chain of 10 billion yuan integrating planting, deep processing, trade, research and development, and market services, and integrating primary, secondary and tertiary industries.
Text/Hebei Daily reporter Wang Sida