On the most beautiful April day in the world, Baiyun Mountain in Damu Township, Xian'an District is full of verdant, and pieces of tea gardens are stacked with green and fragrant.
After the rain, Baiyun Mountain, the fog flows, the mountain peaks appear and disappear from time to time, if it is about to leave, it seems to be real and illusory. And such unique climatic conditions have also given birth to a unique green tea producing area.
In recent years, based on the resource endowment, Damu Township, Xian'an District, has made multi-directional efforts around the construction of ecological tea gardens, the integration of tea tourism, and the empowerment of science and technology, and accelerated the tea industry into the "fast lane" of high-quality development.
A "Green Deposit"
Early in the morning of April 14th, the "Yunxiu Peak" tea base, located in the deepest part of Baiyun Mountain, "woke up" from the morning mist at an altitude of 480 meters, and the busy figures were distributed on various mountains and started a day's work.
The 69-year-old tea farmer has been particularly quick to work since Dongxi, pulling a strip with his left hand and carrying it with his right hand, one bud and one leaf, and putting it into the basket.
The arrival of the visitor made her can't stop chattering a few more words: "The air here is fresh, the climate is pleasant, the boss is very good, give us more than 20 people to eat and live for more than ten days, after going down the mountain, the waist bag will bulge!"
The "boss" in Dongxi's mouth is Chen Zhen, the person in charge of Yunxiu Gaofeng Tea Tourism Cultural Industry Development Co., Ltd. In 2015, Chen Zhen came to Baiyun Mountain with enthusiasm to build a tea garden, which not only survived the test of various extreme weather, but also received the support of the government's "policy package", starting from a small tea garden of 50 acres on the mountain bag and has been working to the scale of more than 500 acres today.
Every tea picking season, Chen Zhen led a team down the mountain and went deep into the villages in advance to "ask for work". Take the current "Guyu Tea" as an example, skilled tea farmers who come to pick tea can earn up to 180 yuan per day.
Last year, the "Yunxiu Peak" company produced more than 3,000 catties of tea, most of which were wholesaled to Xiaogan, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and under Chen Zhen's "physical store + fixed customer source" marketing method, the total revenue could reach 700,000 yuan, of which the "head pot" Ming Qian tea could be sold for 1,600 yuan / kg.
"Good tea comes out of the high mountains and clouds, and good tea is not sold, mainly because of the lack of manpower. Chen Zhen told reporters that if the tea is not picked, it is equivalent to "leaves", worthless, the better the tea sells, the more it will be produced, and the more it is picked, the better it will grow.
"The tea garden has grown, and the Baiyun Mountain tea leaves have bid farewell to the 'harvest from the sky'. This is a 30-year 'green time deposit', which is enough to form a virtuous circle of industrial prosperity and people's prosperity. Liu Zhimin, Secretary of the Party Committee of Damu Township, said.
In order to improve the good industrial ecology, Damu Township has come up with a new plan in 2024: to encourage enterprises to use market-oriented means to introduce labor service entities and form a professional harvesting team. Support the construction of tea culture research bases, carry out skills training, and create a diversified tea tourism integration model.
Looking at the research base under construction, Chen Zhen had a smile written on his face: "Area into output, output into output value, output value into benefits is just around the corner." ”
A relentless persistence
For Damu Township, which is "seven mountains, two rivers and one field", tea planting is not only needed for industrial development, but also a measure to local conditions.
In fact, as early as a few decades ago, there was a "highlight moment" for the development of the tea industry in Damu Township, with a tea planting area of more than 10,000 mu in the township, and almost every village has a tea garden. Later, due to the market environment, the area of tea plantations gradually shrank, and the lowest trough was less than 1,000 acres.
The state-owned Baiyun Mountain Forest Farm is one of the few tea producers that have persisted.
"When I came to Baiyun Mountain in 1996, the forest farm had already started growing tea. Chen Peigen, the director of the forest farm, recalled.
Today, the area of the state-owned Baiyun Mountain Forest Farm Tea Garden has gradually expanded to more than 500 acres, focusing on the famous trademark of Hubei Province - "Baishuifeng Peak" eyebrow tea, taking the route of affordable ration tea, and being recognized by the market for its excellent cost performance.
With the economic and social development, the improvement of the living standards of the masses, under the combined effect of factors such as people's taste for innovation, enhanced awareness of health care, and improvement of cultural taste, sugar-free tea has become a fashion trend, and the market space is becoming broader and broader. A piece of tea has also changed from an "antique" to a "new favorite" in the consumer market.
"It's not a sell-it at all. Chen Peigen introduced that last year, the tea output of Baiyun Mountain Forest Farm was about 3 tons, and the revenue reached more than 200 yuan, which drove more than 60 tea farmers around to increase their income and become rich.
This year, the forest farm adopted a "new plan", introduced labor subjects, carried out corporatized harvesting, and left more room for price differences, which further drove the enthusiasm of tea farmers, and also made them more focused on processing, achieving a win-win situation for all parties.
"With its high added value and strong economic driving force, the tea industry has grown into one of the most important industries in Damu Township, especially in the Baiyun Mountain area, where there has been a momentum of industrial agglomeration. Tang Yang, deputy secretary of the Party Committee of Damu Township, said.
In the second half of last year, Damu Township began to vigorously promote the regional public brand of "Xian'an Gui Tea", guided by standardized construction, and continued to improve tea quality, expand the tea market, and sing the tea brand. Up to now, the area of tea gardens in the township has exceeded 5,000 acres, which has increased several times compared with the past, and the number of tea enterprises has increased to 6, of which 4 are considerable in scale, with the comprehensive ability of production and service of the whole industry chain.
A resounding business card
Coming to the Mufeng Organic Tea Base, Rao Huifu, the person in charge of the base, and Wu Zhichong, deputy secretary of the Party Committee of Damu Township, met and launched a technical discussion.
Since Rao Huifu joined the work in 1978, he has been studying tea planting skills all his life, and is a "tea professor" who enjoys the special allowance of the State Council. In the 13 years that Wu Zhichong came to Damu Township, he has been dealing with tea for 10 years, like half a "tea expert".
From the conversation between the two, the reporter learned the fundamental reason why "good tea comes out of high mountain clouds".
Baiyun Mountain is located in the southeast of Xian'an District, belonging to the Mufu Mountains, with an altitude of nearly 700 meters, surrounded by clouds and mist all year round. Sunlight is filtered by clouds and mist to form diffuse light, which is conducive to the increase of nitrogen-containing compounds in tea and also maintains tenderness. Forests are properly protected and form a complete biological chain to avoid pests and diseases. Temperature, precipitation and soil advantages make the aroma of tea more intense and long-lasting.
For the Mufeng Organic Tea Base, good tea is not limited to "leaves", but also "seedlings". As a demonstration base of the national tea industry technology system in southeast Hubei Province, nearly half of the 300 acres of tea gardens here are used for seedling breeding.
With the support of strong technical strength, after the introduction of tea seedlings from other places, they can be sold to various industrial bases for localized breeding. Whether it is "Yunxiu Peak" or "State-owned Baiyun Mountain Forest Farm", they are all customers of Rao Huifu.
"Zhongcha 108, Zhenong 117, Anji White Tea, and here are the No. 2 and No. 3 Echa that I once participated in breeding...... A total of 80 varieties are available. "Talking about all kinds of famous and high-quality varieties in the base, Rao Huifu is like a few treasures, "Tea seedlings are mainly cultivated through cuttings, and the natural conditions of Baiyun Mountain are more friendly to seedlings, which is a natural 'seedling bed'." ”
Last year, more than 1 million tea seedlings were sold in the Mufeng organic tea base, which is currently the only tea seedling production body in the city, and the high-quality "tea chip" it has mastered is a loud business card, which not only realizes the full coverage of the industrial chain from the terminal to the source, but also promotes the tea industry in Damu Township to embark on the road of differentiated development.
Looking back at the quiet and leisurely Baiyun Mountain, the reporter saw the lush forests and bamboos, the confrontation of the peaks, the clear paths and springs, and also saw that the green waters and green mountains were becoming "gold and silver mountains".
Xianning Daily reporter Wu Wenjin