Heze, Shandong: chili peppers become a big industry to become rich

The workers are producing chili sauce.

After changing jobs, Wang Zhigang, a veteran of Caoxian County, first worked in other places, then returned to his hometown to start a business to deal with the land and farmers, and set up professional cooperatives to promote the development of farmers to plant more than 10,000 mu of chili peppers and to increase the income of more than 1,000 farmers to become rich. he also set up a condiment company to produce chili sauce, specially arranged for the poor to go to work in the factory, and helped more than 30 poor households.

Veterans fend for themselves and go back to their hometown to start a business and grow chili peppers

Wang Zhigang, 41, a native of Li Lou Village, Weiwan Town, Cao County, once served as a soldier and worked, and now he is a small boss returning home to start a business. in 2011, he set up a professional cooperative for planting Luhong in Caoxian County and developed more than 30 mu of Chaotian pepper in this village. after that, more than 10,000 mu of Chaotian pepper planting base was developed in Zhuanmiao Town and Weiwan Town.

In 2009, Wang Zhigang returned to his hometown in Cao County. "when he returned to his hometown, he thought about what he would do." Wang Zhigang said that he has witnessed that farmers in his hometown grow traditional crops such as wheat and corn, but they can't make money all the year round. "will special planting increase the output of the land and increase the income of the people who farm land?"

After thinking about it for a long time, Wang Zhigang thought about his habit of eating chili peppers. He also found that Sichuan food, which is mainly spicy, is popular all over the country. Most people like to eat spicy food as much as he does. "regardless of the amount of food used in restaurants, ordinary citizens also need chili peppers for cooking at home. Is it feasible to grow chili peppers?"

Paper will sleep shallow, never know the matter want to practice. With this idea, Wang Zhigang went non-stop to visit and study pepper planting bases in Sichuan, Henan, Hebei and other places to inspect pepper varieties and learn planting techniques.

After he finished his study, he first took out two mu of land at home for trial planting, and at the same time found close friends in the village to plant it together. "I've never planted land before. I asked the villagers to plant chili peppers, but they didn't believe me." Wang Zhigang had to plant and do experiments at home, and at the same time promised and signed an agreement to the farmers who planted chili with him that the recovery price per mu was not less than 2000 yuan. at that time, the income per mu of corn was less than 1,000 yuan. "only more than ten mu have been planted in such a village."

The development of more than ten thousand mu is driven by the first ten mu.

After the chili peppers were planted, Wang Zhigang was not idle for a moment. He began to go to other places to inspect the dry goods seasoning market to find a market for more than ten mu of chili peppers. Due to the great demand in the market, there is no shortage of sales at all. At that time, the farmers who followed Wang Zhigang to grow chili peppers earned more than 4000 yuan per mu of land.

The gold cup and silver cup is not as popular as the common people. Ordinary people tasted the benefits and began to trust Wang Zhigang. The original farmers expanded their planting scale in the second year, and many new farmers joined in. In the second year, the planting area of pepper reached more than 200 mu, and the varieties of pepper were also enriched.

In the third year, that is, in 2011, the planting area of chili peppers reached more than 600 mu. In August of the same year, Wang Zhigang set up a professional cooperative for planting chili peppers in Lu Hong, which uniformly recycled chili peppers, and then sold them to the dry goods seasoning markets in Sichuan, Hunan, Jiangxi and other places.

With the increase in income, farmers are more energetic. "in my first year, I planted more than 60 mu of chili peppers, and the co-op is still cash recycled, which is much better than growing grain!" Zhan Wuying, a big grower in Zhanzhuang Village, Weiwan Town, Cao County, said happily that now he cooperates with people and the planting scale has reached more than 400 mu.

Wang Zhigang's Lu Hong planting Professional Cooperative also increased from five farmers at the beginning of its establishment to more than 30 in the second year, and now 123 farmers have joined, with Weiwan Town as the center to radiate the surrounding brick temples, Louzhuang and other villages and towns. The planting area of pepper has also reached more than 10,000 mu, and chili peppers are sold all over the country.

Lengthen the pepper industry chain to drive more farmers to get rich

The scale of pepper planting is getting larger and larger, why not lengthen the industrial chain and increase the added value of pepper? In 2016, Wang Zhigang's Caoxian Luwei condiment Co., Ltd. was established, with 37 regular workers, and its company mainly produces chili sauce.

Due to the good taste and quality of the products, the chili sauce produced by the company attended the 13th China Forest Fair in 2016, which was affirmed by many expert judges and won the Silver Award at one stroke.

A few days ago, when the reporter saw him, he was negotiating with a local chicken farmer to jointly develop diced chicken chili sauce. It turned out that he planned to expand the company's product range and further increase the added value of the products to benefit more pepper growers.

Wang Zhigang said that in the next step, he plans to develop for another two to three years, expand the planting scale of chili to 30,000 to 50,000 mu, control the whole production process of chili from the source, produce organic chili, produce green food, and further develop a series of chili products such as diced chicken chili sauce and golden cicada chili sauce.

Wang Zhigang said that in the future, he will also use chili peppers to extract capsaicin, which can be used in areas such as medical care. "in this way, it can lead more farmers to grow chili peppers to become rich, provide jobs for more poor households, and enable poor families to get rid of poverty as soon as possible."