Xu Lizhen: love the barren mountains, develop agriculture and get rich together.

As the saying goes, one more day after the Frost Festival, one more drop of tea oil on the tree. After growing Camellia oleifera for six years, Xu Lizhen is well aware of this truth. this year, the result rate of her more than 500mu Camellia oleifera base is higher than that of previous years. If Frosts Descent picks after the festival, not only the quality is good, but also the oil yield is high.

Unfortunately, the weather is not beautiful, after the Frost Festival, it rained for more than half a month, and the harvest of Camellia oleifera was greatly affected.

Looking at the fruit trees with damaged branches and leaves, Xu Lizhen said: "in recent years, the weather is bad, farmers' profits have shrunk sharply, and many of my colleagues have quit." "have you ever thought about changing careers?" The reporter asked. "No. If I quit, all the 153 members who work with me will be laid off. " Xu Lizhen said.

Xu Lizhen, 48, is a famous farmer technician and entrepreneurial talent in Sanmen County. In the 15 years since she started her business, she has been in love with barren mountains, worked carefully, and led the villagers and elders to find a way to get rich.

Love is the barren mountain to develop agriculture

In 1998, as a result of the restructuring of state-owned enterprises, Xu Lizhen was laid off and became an insurance salesman.

By chance, she heard that 100 mu of bayberry garden in her hometown would be contracted and the price was very cheap. Xu Lizhen thought that it would be better to contract the red bayberry garden and invite customers to taste it and exchange feelings when the bayberry is mature. With the mentality of giving it a try, Xu Lizhen began a peasant life of "sweating in sunny days and muddy in rainy days".

Because she was not born as a farmer, Hsu Lizhen knew very little about agricultural technology, so she visited agricultural experts everywhere to improve her planting and nursing skills. When she went on a business trip to the city, she went to the bookstore to replenish her "spiritual food." when she saw what she liked, she bought it home. over the years, her room was full of books on growing fruits and vegetables.

Although it was an unintentional move to contract the bayberry garden at the beginning, Hsu Lizhen was not careless when she really planted the bayberry orchard. Technical cultivation and grafting of new seedlings were all taken care of in good order. Slowly, the focus of her work shifted to agriculture, enriching her agricultural knowledge and improving her skills while trying to develop new crops on barren hills.

In 2002, Xu Lizhen used all her savings to contract more than 1000 mu of barren mountains in Shaoxia, Meikeng Hu and other villages to develop the cultivation of famous fruits such as bayberry, honey pomelo and fragrant plum. In 2004, she contracted more than 3600 mu of barren mountains on Lutian Mountain more than 400m above sea level and planted Dongkui bayberry, Camellia oleifera and other fruits and seedlings, becoming the largest alpine Dongkui bayberry production base in the city. Her road to agricultural industrialization has taken a step.

Unite farmers to take the road of brand

Different from the mentality of many farmers who are satisfied with producing and selling on their own, years of marketing experience tells her that the development of agriculture must take the road of "you don't have what you have, you have my advantage".

After many times of market research and expert guidance, Xu Lizhen gradually marched into new varieties and high-quality crops. In Shaoxia village, she planted Dongkui red bayberry, which was famous at that time, to seize the market with high quality; in Meikeng Hu, she planted precocious Jusen apples, which yielded benefits in the first year. At the same time, she also transformed the 100-mu low-yield bayberry in Geshui Shao Village, half grafted Dongkui red bayberry and half cultivated a new variety, Xishuizao Damei, which sold the highest price in the county in its first year on the market, and other farmers followed suit.

With keen observation, Xu Lizhen realized that farmers who fought alone and with weak power could not seize the say in the market, so that there was the phenomenon of increasing production without increasing income. As a result, she joined hands with 16 major growers in the county to establish Sanmen County Flower and Fruit Professional Cooperative, registered the trademark of "Xishuishan" brand fruit, and took the road of large-scale management, standardized production, and brand marketing.

In 2007, "Xishuishan" red bayberry passed the national organic product certification; in 2008, it won the Taizhou famous brand; in 2010, the "Xishuishan" trademark was awarded the famous trademark of Taizhou City. The "Xishuishan" brand fruit is gradually moving out of Taizhou and into the whole country.

Develop Nongjiale and lead the villagers to get rich

Xu Lizhen's personal success did not make Xu Lizhen complacent. She thought more about how the people in the mountain area next to the pavilion could get out of poverty. "A person who is rich is not rich. People are only rich when they are rich." This is the most common saying of Xu Lizhen.

Since the establishment of the cooperative, she has repeatedly invited provincial and municipal agricultural experts at her own expense to give on-site technical guidance to farmers more than 500 times, gave lectures to large growers and laid-off workers, trained 455 people, and distributed more than 500 copies of technical materials. under her influence, more than 70 households began to grow fruit and merge into the cooperative.

Under the leadership of Xu Lizhen, the cooperative has developed 153 members, with total assets of 5.0384 million yuan, connecting 1500 peasant households and planting area of 16900 mu.

Under the circumstances that workers' wages are rising year by year and the output value of crops is declining due to climate reasons, many growers either choose to quit or reduce their planting area, while Xu Lizhen chooses to insist.

She joined Sanmen Jianyijia Food Co., Ltd. to set up a camellia oil processing plant. At the same time, she also plans to combine her fruit base with the natural scenery of Xishui Mountain to form a farm leisure center and develop leisure tourism. Today, the road connecting the fruit base and Xishui Mountain has been connected, and the beginning of a large-scale farm leisure place can be achieved in the same day.

"once this farm leisure center is officially put into operation, my agricultural road will lead to a new world, and local villagers will also find a new way to get rich." Xu Lizhen said.