Obsessed with innovation, "Pepper King" farming can also be very beautiful.

Showing off his own chili peppers, Zhang Jianguo is very proud

"come and see, these chili peppers are so beautiful, like flowers!" "the one here is even better. This is the first time I've seen chili peppers planted in flowerpots." On October 27, at the 4th China (Shanxi) characteristic Agricultural products Trading Expo, a chili booth in the exhibition area of Shuozhou attracted many citizens to watch.

Some of these chili peppers are long, some are round, and some are like blooming flowers, and the colors are not only the common red and green, but also yellow, all bright and beautiful, exquisite and lovely, do not have some fun. "can they eat?" Someone asked doubtfully. "if you can eat, no problem!" A middle-aged man replied with a smile that these chili peppers have thick meat, thin skin and fragrant seeds, and they all taste good, and potted chili peppers can be moved back home to grow, both ornamental and edible. "when the soil is dry, it can blossom and bear fruit continuously, so that there will be fresh chili peppers at home all the year round! As long as you take good care of it, you can guarantee it for at least three years. " Zhang Jianguo said confidently.

The middle-aged man who spoke was Zhang Jianguo, a 54-year-old villager from Shaanghe Township, Shuocheng District, Shuozhou City. He was the developer of these heterosexual chili peppers with plain clothes and a clear face. Speaking of, Zhang Jianguo is their local celebrity, as long as they mention chili, the first thing that comes to mind is "Lao Zhang". He is a "king of chili" in everyone's eyes.

I don't know why, born in an ordinary peasant family, Zhang Jianguo was born with a passion for land. When he was young, he served as a soldier in the army, specializing in logistics production, dealing with land all day long, and was responsible for agricultural and sideline production. Seventeen years later, when he retired and returned to the local area, he could have been assigned to a good unit to be a working class with a stable income, but he refused. He said that he just likes farming and finds it interesting. "when I was in the army, I often did some technical training, so I learned some planting skills. When I went back to the village, I felt that these things could not be thrown away, so I wanted to study something. Because of the strong plasticity of chili peppers, I began to do research. " Zhang Jianguo said that when he returned to the countryside in 1997, there were very few people growing chili in the village, and most of them made a living by growing corn, but compared with chili, corn did not sell very well in the market, so he bought the first batch of seeds from a seed store and took the lead in replanting all 40 mu of land in his family into chili peppers.

In order to grow his own chili peppers, Zhang Jianguo studied in the planting shed all day long, planting, watering, and fertilizing, and the growth status of each plant was always kept in his mind. In that year, their family's harvest was good, which impressed many villagers, and gradually some people began to follow him to grow chili peppers.

However, the studious Zhang Jianguo wants not only output, but also quality. In order to further improve the quality of chili peppers, he ate and lived in the greenhouse day and night, devoted himself to growing chili peppers, fell asleep almost every day after 3 a.m. and seldom went home during the year except for the Spring Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival. The villagers sighed that Lao Zhang was so full of spirit that this kind of suffering could not be borne by ordinary people. With this spirit, Lao Zhang finally achieved fruitful fruit, seasoning pepper, sheep horn pepper, potted pepper …... All kinds of novel chili peppers have finally been successfully developed.

Zhang Jianguo said: even if you are farming, you have to plant a way. Now that you have planted chili peppers, you have to make everyone's days prosperous. Therefore, every year during the idle season, he will also organize growers and surrounding villagers to carry out free technical training, every training is always full, everyone wants to hear "Lao Zhang" talk about it. Gradually, Lao Zhang became more and more famous, and more than a dozen villages in the surrounding towns, even people from across provinces, came to learn from him and learn how to grow chili peppers.

In 2014, Yanfeng Pepper No. 8 and No. 9, which he developed, were recognized and promoted by the relevant departments for the first time. His pepper planting area has also expanded from 40 mu to 300 mu, and with the support of the government, he has set up an agricultural cooperative, which is responsible for the cultivation, production and management of chili. Over the years, he has been invited to participate in various exhibitions inside and outside the province, and even some well-known agricultural professors have exchanged views with him.

Today, he is the director of a cooperative with intangible assets of 4.8 million yuan, although a group of employees learn from him and help him share farm work. But most of the time, he still does it himself, guarding the chili fields day and night. He said that the reason for today's achievement is that he came out one step at a time, so he must really do it with his heart. If you coax the land, the land must be coaxing your belly. "as long as I can move, I will stick to it!" Zhang Jianguo said that his main job now is the cultivation and research and development of chili peppers. In the future, he wants to study the deep processing of chili peppers, to turn it into an industry, to develop all kinds of chili products, and to promote his own chili peppers. Let more people taste the fruits of their own research and development.