Yang Zujian: lead the villagers to grow medicine and get rich

Yang Zujian (left) manages and protects traditional Chinese medicine with the villagers.

On April 27, the reporter came to Qingyang traditional Chinese Medicine planting Co-operative in Qingliu Town, Rongchang District. At a glance, the hills were full of all kinds of Chinese herbal medicines, and they were full of vitality in the sunlight. When it comes to Yang Zujian, many villagers give a thumbs up: "he is a capable man. He has both scientific and technological awareness and economic acumen. He grows medicinal materials well and sells well. He is really our leader in getting rich!"

Yang Zujian was born in Qingliu Town, Rongchang District in 1979. The town is located at the junction of Sichuan and Chongqing, with inconvenient transportation. At that time, it was a typical agricultural town, and most of the villagers lived a life of sunrise and sunset. Shortly after his birth, Yang Zujian fell ill and was not treated in time, resulting in a third-grade disability in his right leg. Because it was inconvenient for him to move, Yang Zujian grew up and started a small business everywhere for a living.

Since 2010, traditional business has become more and more difficult, and Yang Zujian is also thinking about changing careers. Once, when several good friends got together, a friend said that he worked outside and his income was not as high as his mother who grew medicinal herbs at home. Yang Zujian had an idea after hearing this: the village has high mountains and steep slopes, the income from farming is not high, most of the villagers go out to work, and a lot of land is idle, so why not use it to grow traditional Chinese medicine?

Just do it. In 2011, Yang Zujian began to grow Trichosanthes. In the words of Yang Zujian, Trichosanthes is more hardy and suitable for the high altitude area of his hometown, and the soil where he lives is thick, sunny, and Trichosanthes is easier to survive.

"I really didn't expect a bumper harvest in the first year of planting melon baskets." Yang Zujian said happily that at that time, the melon basket he planted was not only in short supply in the market, but also the market price was constantly rising, so that he tasted the sweetness of planting traditional Chinese medicine and also saw the hope of developing Chinese medicine.

After the success of the first water trial, Yang Zujian introduced a number of varieties of traditional Chinese medicine from Sichuan, Chengdu and Yunnan, and began to try to plant new varieties. He studied the local soil and climatic conditions, flipped through a large number of books, and successfully planted rhubarb, Bupleurum, Notopterygium, Banlangen, Yuanbao Maple and other traditional Chinese medicine. After several years of exploration, Yang Zujian figured out a set of his own experience, and the more Chinese herbal medicines were planted, the better. Over the past few years, Yang Zu has become a famous local man of wealth.

After his success, Yang Zujian always thought that as a disabled person, he grew up with the help of villagers. Therefore, "when you get rich, you must never forget your roots." As a result, Yang Zujian will have a higher survival rate, easier to grow seedlings of traditional Chinese medicine, free of charge to the villagers for planting, and gradually let many local villagers plant traditional Chinese medicine. Finally, with the expansion of the planting scale of local traditional Chinese medicine, Yang Zujian set up a professional cooperative for the cultivation of traditional Chinese medicine, driving more villagers to grow traditional Chinese medicine together.

Yang Zujian told reporters that his cooperative has developed 113 members, including 60 disabled people, and the whole cooperative has planted nearly 1000 mu of traditional Chinese medicine. Cooperatives mobilize villagers to plant Chinese herbal medicines separately, but unified acquisition and unified management have achieved very good benefits, making traditional Chinese medicinal materials an important way for local villagers to get rich.

Today, Yang Zujian leads the villagers to sell traditional Chinese medicine to Guizhou, Yunnan and other places, which is very popular with consumers. Sometimes they even have to give up door-to-door orders because of the limited scale of planting and the shortage of medicinal materials.

Yang Zujian said that in the next step, the cooperative will further improve the infrastructure and the planting technology of traditional Chinese medicine, cooperate with Chinese medicine processing enterprises, further expand and strengthen the Chinese medicine industry, and build a leading cooperative for agricultural industrialization in Rongchang. Drive more villagers to get rich.