Zeng Lanying: the first person to plant Chenxiang artificially in Hainan

Over the past 15 years, Zeng Lanying promoted more than 1 million seedlings to more than 2000 farmers, becoming the first person worthy of the name to artificially plant Chenxiang in Hainan.

Chenxiang is a valuable medicinal material, which has been called "the treasure of traditional Chinese medicine" and "the first of many fragrances" since ancient times. it has high medicinal and collection value, and belongs to the second-class key protected plant species in the country. At present, the price of good Chenxiang traditional Chinese medicine slices is 200 RMB300 per gram, the price of Chenxiang essential oil on the market is thousands of yuan per gram, and the price of high-quality Chenxiang handicrafts starts at tens of thousands of yuan.

Zeng Lanying, 57, chairman of Hainan Tunchang Jingying Chenxiang Development Technology Co., Ltd., is the first person in Hainan to successfully cultivate Chenxiang Miao. In 1992, Zeng Lanying sold the 200g black oil to a Guangdong boss for 5000 yuan. She thought she had sold it for a high price, but after the deal, the Guangdong boss told her that this piece of incense was even harder to find than gold. This sentence let Zeng Lanying see the prospect of Chenxiang industry.

At that time, people from other places came to Hainan to buy incense on a large scale, resulting in wild incense being cut down indiscriminately and almost extinct. "since Chen Xiang is so valuable, why can't it be planted artificially?" Zeng Lanying said he would do it as soon as he did. After repeated breeding experiments in 1995, he finally successfully cultivated the seedlings of Chenxiang. Over the years, Zeng Lanying has rode a motorcycle to most of the rural areas in all cities and counties in Hainan, and has promoted more than 1 million Chenxiang seedlings to more than 2000 farmers. Led by her, many merchants from outside the island landed on contracted land in Hainan to plant incense, and most growers embarked on the road of getting rid of poverty and becoming rich because of planting incense.

In 2005, the incense trees popularized and planted have reached the age of artificial incense planting. Zeng Lanying spent tens of thousands of yuan to buy incense trees from growers to experiment with artificial fragrance. After several years of repeated experiments, Zeng Lanying invented the "artificial hole injection technology." "the skill of making incense in Tunchang" has also been listed in the fourth batch of Hainan provincial intangible cultural heritage catalogue.

"the incense tree originally had to undergo lightning insect bites and secrete resin from the wound before it could finally form incense, but now we have mastered the skill of artificial incense." Zeng Lanying told reporters that the management of Chenxiang planting is relatively simple, and farmers can use the free land in front and back of their houses to grow, with an average of 200 plants per mu, and each plant can make a profit of 10,000 yuan during the 12-year growth cycle, which belongs to a high value-added industry. After the formation of the whole industrial chain of Chenxiang, the villagers can also work in the Chenxiang processing factory to earn money and take care of their families.

In Tunchang and other mountainous cities and counties in central Hainan, villagers mostly make a living by tapping rubber. Rubber prices have fallen sharply in recent years, and people's lives have improved a lot since planting incense trees. Deng Qi, a grower in Poxin Town, Tunchang County, said with a smile, "with Jingying Company providing full service and guaranteed acquisition, farmers are only responsible for management and maintenance, which reduces the risk of farmers." Planting incense does not occupy arable land, and with the guidance of experts, we are waiting to make money. "

Although the prospect of Chenxiang industry is promising, there are still some weak links that restrict the sustainable development of the industry. Relevant industry insiders say frankly that although the artificial incense making technology of Tunchang local "drilling hole + bacterial medicine" method has been leading in the country, the rate of aroma production has been unable to meet the market demand. The whole fragrance technology is still in the exploratory stage, and the cost of making incense is relatively high, the cost per plant is between 50 and 200 yuan, and the cost of production and management of farmers is relatively high in the past few years. In addition, Tunchang Chenxiang products are single, and no industrial chain has been formed. at the same time, there is a lack of government guidance and long-term industrial planning, lack of financial support, and no support from large-scale industrial projects and leading enterprises. as a result, farmers in Tunchang County hold a wait-and-see attitude towards planting Chenxiang.

For this reason, in 2010, Zeng Lanying registered and established "Hainan Tunchang County Jingying Chenxiang Development Technology Co., Ltd." to explore and study Chenxiang, selected an excellent variety of Chenxiang, "black oil sinking water" seedlings, and successively developed a series of products of Chenxiang ointment, Chenxiang tea and Chenxiang wine. Wang Kangwen, general manager of Jingying Chenxiang Company, said that he hopes to build the whole industry chain of planting and processing of Chenxiang through the model of company, cooperative and peasant household. Jingying provides farmers with one-stop technical support and services from seedling, management, incense production, deep processing and sales. (reporter Deng Weizhe)