Editor's note: There is a group of people, they are industry experts, dotted in the countryside of Guangdong, active in the agricultural industry chain, on the road to rural revitalization, have achieved themselves, helped others, they are the Guangdong Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs recognized as "rural experts". In promoting industrial development, they actively connect with agricultural science and technology correspondents, serve typical villages, help the construction of the "Millions and Thousands of Projects", and contribute to rural revitalization with practical actions.
Since April this year, the Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has launched the "10,000 local experts to serve the 'Millions of Projects' Excellent Case Collection Activity". The excellent case selected in this issue is that Ye Nongqing, a local expert in Heyuan City, has returned to his hometown to start a business for more than 10 years in order to revitalize the ancient bamboo and lychee industry in his hometown, and has linked up with the villagers to establish cooperatives for group development, persistently and continuously learn and promote good varieties and good methods, implement the upgrading and transformation project of the lychee garden, rejuvenate the new industrial advantages of Heyuan, reproduce the new industrial scene of Heyuan lychee full of red mountains, and turn the "green water and green mountains" guarded by Guzhu villagers into "gold and silver mountains".
Ancient bamboo lychee used to be a nostalgia that lingered in the mind of the wandering cotyledons.
In his memory, Guzhu Lychee has a glorious past. In the 90s of the last century, Guzhu Town, Zijin County, Heyuan City (now Guzhu Town, Jiangdong New Area) was listed as a "one township, one product" planting base by the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee and the provincial government. But around 2000, the ancient bamboo lychee industry gradually declined, which became a deep regret in the hearts of the locals.
Ye Nongqing (left)
The hometown of lychee has gone from glory to decline, and Ye Nongqing has seen it in his eyes and remembered it in his heart. After graduating from high school, Ye Nongqing has been working and doing business in other places for many years, but the glory of his hometown Guzhu Lychee has always been hidden in his heart and has become the initial motivation for him to return to his hometown to start a business.
Since 2012, in order to accelerate the upgrading and transformation of the lychee industry, increase farmers' income, and revitalize the rural economy, Ye Nongqing, who returned to his hometown to start a business, has undertaken the upgrading and transformation of the lychee industry in Heyuan. Let the traditional industry of lychee, the ancient bamboo town, be revitalized.
Establish a cooperative to awaken the "ancient" lychee
In 2012, for the sake of nostalgia, Ye Nongqing returned to his hometown to become a new farmer, established the Guzhu Manshan Red Lychee Planting Farmers Professional Cooperative, linked the villagers to develop together, and determined to revitalize the Guzhu lychee industry in his hometown.
In Ye Nongqing's view, although Guzhu lychee has stagnated and declined, the industrial foundation formed by the golden development period is still solid. Moreover, unlike lychees in the Pearl River Delta region, lychees in Guzhu Town are late-maturing, which is a unique advantage and deserves better development. "Guzhu lychee has its own advantages, as long as there is determination and ideas, we can break out a way to make Guzhu lychee rejuvenated." Ye Nongqing, who returned to his hometown to start a business, is ambitious, and he wants to make the lychees in his hometown prosperous.
In the face of potential advantages, this wanderer who returned to his hometown to start a business often wonders what made the former cash cow silent for so long? At the same time, the lychee industry in Conghua, Zengcheng, Dongguan and other Pearl River Delta regions is booming, which makes Ye Nongqing feel that it is time to revitalize his hometown lychee.
To this end, he traveled all over Guzhu Town and the villages of neighboring Linjiang Town, communicated with growers, consulted planting experts, and took the initiative to contact the government's agricultural department to learn about the development trend of agricultural policies. At the same time, we went deep into the lychee producing areas around the province to learn from experience, actively participated in meetings related to the lychee industry, and constantly exchanged and learned with industry professionals, understood market dynamics, and learned cutting-edge technology of lychee planting.
After continuous visits, studies and attempts, Ye Nongqing, who is good at learning, has gradually grown from a newcomer to a lychee planting professional, and has been selected as a rural expert in Guangdong. The hard work in the early stage has been greatly recognized, which has given Ye Nongqing great encouragement.
In 2012, Ye Nongqing established the Manshan Red Lychee Planting Farmers Cooperative in Shuidong Village, known as the "Lychee Village" in Guzhu Town, and he wrote his confidence and determination in Guzhu Lychee into the name of the cooperative. It is understood that the cooperative has been established and operated for more than 10 years, and has now joined more than 100 households, growing into a provincial-level demonstration society with the inheritance and innovation of lychee and longan local characteristic fruit and vegetable industries as the core, and integrating lychee planting, production, management, research and development, processing and sales.
Improve the old varieties and bring out new advantages
In the process of continuous study and visits, the vigorous development of the lychee industry in the Pearl River Delta region has made Ye Nongqing suddenly enlightened, and the problems that have been bothering him have also been solved. "Unreasonable planting structure, backward management technology and concept are the main factors hindering the development and upgrading of the ancient bamboo and lychee industry." Ye Nongqing believes that "the improved varieties meet the needs of market development, and our ancient bamboo lychee has a way out." ”
Later, in order to learn the improvement technology of lychee varieties, Ye Nongqing found the Shenzhen Comprehensive Experimental Station of the National Lychee Longan Industry Technology System, South China Agricultural University, Heyuan Branch of the Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences and other units to study, and under the training and guidance of agricultural experts, he learned the high-level grafting technology of lychee.
After returning from school, this gave Ye Nongqing's dream of many years of dreams wings to fly.
"If the ancient bamboo lychee wants to regain its vitality, it must be replanted." Ye Nongqing said this and did the same. At the same time, in order to better promote the improvement and upgrading of lychee, Ye Nongqing also organized members to visit and study lychee bases in Huizhou, Dongguan, Zengcheng, Conghua and other major producing areas for many times, to get in touch with new views and advanced concepts in the industry, and to broaden the vision of the villagers. Let the villagers deeply understand that there is only a dead end for self-containment, and only by embracing new technologies and improving ancient bamboo and lychee varieties can there be a new way out. Through unremitting efforts and learning and promotion, more and more villagers have joined the team of breed improvement. Since the spring of 2016, Ye Nongqing began to go to the village to publicize and promote the variety improvement technology, and led the villagers to go up the mountain to replace the low-yield Huaizhi in Guzhu Town with high-yield Huaizhi, and replaced it with lychees with relatively high economic value such as Xianjin Feng, Lingfeng Nuo and Glutinous Rice Cake.
According to statistics, in the past 10 years, Ye Nongqing has promoted more than 100 acres of new varieties of improved varieties and new varieties of demonstration gardens, and the demonstration has driven more than 5,000 acres of standardized planting and more than 2,000 acres of variety improvement, and the area of variety improvement has increased year by year, driving nearly 1,000 households in towns including Guzhu and Linjiang to get rid of poverty and become rich with "li", indirectly driving the optimization and upgrading of more than 10,000 acres of old orchards, introducing more than 10 new varieties and formulating 2 local standards for lychee agriculture and related standards, etc., building a fruit and vegetable supply base, and producing "Manshanhong" Lychee has obtained the "Pollution-free Agricultural Product Certification" and registered the "Wanli Lake" lychee trademark.
Through the improvement of high-grafting varieties and the optimization and upgrading of old orchards, the vitality of ancient bamboo lychee has been revived. At present, the demonstration planting base of the cooperative has developed into the "Guangdong Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (Heyuan) Lychee Germplasm Resource Nursery Base, Litchi Standard Varieties and Good Methods Exhibition Park", Guangdong Lychee Brand Demonstration Base, and Heyuan Science Education Base.
It is understood that the existing lychee forest area of Guzhu Town is nearly 10,000 acres, of which Shuidong Village is planted with lychee and longan about 2,600 acres, and the original lychee varieties mainly include March Red, Feizixiao, Guiwei, Glutinous Rice Ball, Hezhi, and the existing improved varieties of lychee include Jinggang Nuo, Bingli, Linglong, Xiangmi Li, Lover's Li, etc.
Promote new varieties and create new benefits
Through the establishment of cooperatives for group development, changing the way of farmers' ideological management and agricultural development, improving and upgrading the varieties of Guzhu lychee by learning lychee grafting and improvement technology, cultivating new varieties and promoting new technologies through technological innovation, and continuously promoting the deep processing of lychee and developing new products...... For more than ten years, in order to revive the lychee industry in his hometown, Ye Nongqing has made a lot of efforts and attempts. As a pioneer and leader in the development of the modern lychee industry in Heyuan City, Ye Nongqing hopes that through his own persistence and efforts, he will promote improved varieties and good methods, innovate management, deeply awaken and transform the once glorious lychee forests in the village, and lead the villagers to rebuild the "cash cow".
So far, Ye Nongqing has led the introduction of more than 10 new and excellent varieties of lychee, and after years of research and cultivation, the demonstration test of new varieties and new technologies has achieved good benefits in the local promotion and application of Heyuan, driving growers to increase their income and become rich.
According to statistics, in recent years, focusing on the promotion of improved lychee varieties and good methods, Ye Nongqing has successively held more than 100 training sessions on lychee orchard upgrading, introduction of new varieties and promotion of high-grafting technology, lychee planting and other related technologies, cultivating nearly 2,000 new litchi farmers with modern industrial technology and solving thousands of jobs at home. At the same time, in the process of production practice, Ye Nongqing has continuously improved the business model of cooperatives, established a "cooperative + scientific research institutions + social collective + village collective + base + standard + farmers + supply chain + e-commerce platform" linkage business model, through the creation of standardized seedling bases, differentiated planting varieties of ancient bamboo lychee, to achieve bumper harvests year after year, the average sales price of fresh fruit is 60 yuan/kg, and a series of dried lychees, lychee wine, lychee cicada tea, lychee egg crisps, lychee cured meat and other commodities have been put into the market. On this basis, the per capita income of most members has increased by more than 45,000 yuan, which has promoted the benign development of the local lychee industry and achieved good economic and social benefits.
"Over the years, in order to develop the farmers and improve the yield and quality of lychees, I have been running to more than a dozen households every day on average, and I have become friends with farmers, and no matter how difficult the problem is, I can solve it." In order to revitalize the ancient bamboo lychee in his hometown, Ye Nongqing has been persevering and cultivating for more than ten years, and has slowly entered the hearts of litchi farmers, and has been called "litchi soil expert" and "litchi science and technology expert" by the villagers, and has become the leader of the local revitalization of the litchi industry. "I hope that lychee can really make the villagers of Guzhu Town rich, not only that, but also drive the neighboring towns to get rich together." Ye Nongqing is full of hope for this.
Nowadays, the "Millions of Projects" are in full swing, and Guzhu Lychee has a lot to offer. As the main producing area of lychee in Heyuan, Guzhu Town is adapting measures to local conditions, based on the characteristics of ancient bamboo, focusing on the lychee industry chain, deeply cultivating the industry, and further promoting the integrated development of primary, secondary and tertiary industries.
【Author】Zeng Fanmei, Lai Qiaofang (Heyuan Agricultural Science and Technology Commissioner)
【Source】Heyuan Municipal Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Guangdong Provincial Agricultural Technology Extension Center