Tea Township Father and Son Soldiers Drive Tea Farmers to Prosperity

On January 22, Ya 'an city in Lianjiang Township, Mingshan District Ouhua Village, a gray-haired, plainly dressed old man, is busy in the tea field. At first glance, Zhou Jie, 68, is no different from ordinary tea farmers. However, he is a well-known expert in the tea industry. The high-quality tea seeds he devoted his whole life to breeding brought great changes to the lives of Ya 'an tea farmers.

an idea

And fight for it all my life.

Zhou Jie, 68 years old this year, is the head of Lianjiang Township Tea Seed Farm. Looking at dozens of newly cultivated varieties in front of him, Zhou Jie was filled with emotion."I have been living with tea in the tea field for 40 years."

After retiring five times in 1977, Zhou Jie returned to the tea farm of Lotus Village to manage the tea garden. He slowly learned that a kind of improved tea seedlings mainly introduced by Mingshan in the past cost more than 1 yuan per plant. Therefore, he made up his mind to develop tea seedlings with low cost and suitable for local growth.

New varieties of tea trees take a long time to cultivate, sometimes even taking generations to complete-which means that your efforts are likely to be fruitless.

There is no regret in choosing. In order to collect first-hand information on tea tree growth, Zhou Jie can often be seen squatting in the experimental tea field in the scorching sun and heavy rain.

Fourteen years passed quietly in this persistence. Finally, in 1994, Zhou Jie selected "Mingshan Baihao" and "Mingshan Zao" from 265 excellent tea plant varieties. In 2005,"Mingshan Baihao" was selected as a national tea variety.

The promotion of new varieties makes many tea farmers live better. Not only are they famous mountains, but these two tea varieties have become the main varieties for vigorously adjusting the agricultural industrial structure in tea-suitable areas of our province in recent years. In addition, tea farmers in Yunnan, Guizhou, Shaanxi, Gansu, Hubei, Jiangsu, Guangxi, Chongqing and other places also widely planted these two varieties of tea trees, bringing huge economic and social benefits to the local area.

"I'm going to be 70 years old soon. In the future, I'll mainly assist my son in the cultivation of improved tea trees." This is another thing Zhou Jie is proud of.

a figure

Leading the Way Forward

"This is golden tea!"

Zhou Jie is communicating with his 39-year-old son Zhou Weizhi at Lianjiang Township Tea Seed Farm. Zhou Weizhi followed his father into the tea field since childhood and knew all kinds of tea varieties. In 1997, Zhou Weizhi retired five times back home, saw his father still working in the tea field, his father's old figure dispelled his idea of going out.

That year, it was Zhou Jie's time to breed two improved tea varieties. In order to find suitable tea seedlings for cultivation, Zhou Weizhi traveled to all towns of famous mountains.

New varieties need to be popularized. In order to make improved tea varieties produce benefits and drive one party's economy, Zhou Weizhi followed his father to establish tea seedling breeding bases in several towns and towns, and provided improved tea tree branches to local people for free.

Years of promotion have seen results. After practice, the masses have tasted the sweetness in the planting of improved tea. From 2004 to 2008 alone, the area of cutting improved tea seedlings in Mingshan reached more than 2000 mu every year, and 400 million improved tea seedlings were exported annually, with an annual sales volume of 8 million yuan.

a promise

Strive to climb the stairs again

After many years of searching, Zhou Jie became a tea soil expert step by step from a tea layman, and was rated as a senior technician and intermediate tea evaluator in rural areas.

After taking over the burden of breeding improved tea varieties from his father, Zhou Weizhi demanded himself more strictly and made great efforts to do a good job in the breeding of improved tea varieties.

At present, more than 300 excellent tea plants are being cultivated in the tea tree breeding field managed by Zhou Weizhi. His father's success inspired Zhou Weizhi's confidence and determination to breed more improved tea varieties.

Through layer-by-layer screening, he successively selected more than 10 varieties for cultivation, finally determined 3 new green tea varieties for careful breeding, and strived to add three improved tea varieties for famous mountains.

"I still have to continue to work hard to be a tea farmer who breeds good tea varieties." Zhou Weizhi is also very modest. Like his father, he calls himself a "tea farmer."