In the mulberry picking garden, Chen Xingfeng picked the new variety of mulberry “White Pearl”, and the harvest was sweet; in the poverty alleviation village, Lai Zhencai, a 59-year-old sericulture major, spread new mulberry leaves on her young silkworms to sow hope; In an ecological B&B on a hillside, Chen Zeyong, a young entrepreneur who has returned to his hometown, is busy tidying up his backyard to create a comfortable and leisurely courtyard for tourists…
The summer sunshine pours down onto the mountains and river valleys of Shiquan, Shaanxi, a mountain city in the Qinling Mountains. At the foot of Yunwu Mountain and next to Guigu Ridge, the fragrance of earth is permeated, and there is vitality everywhere. A new picture of rural revitalization is slowly unfolding.
Shiquan County, Shaanxi Province is bordered by the Qinling Mountains to the north and Bashan Mountain to the south, with the Han River passing through the county. As early as the Western Han Dynasty, it was an important production area for the sericulture silk industry. Historically, the Ziwu Ancient Road in the Qinling Mountains was connected with the Silk Road leading to the Western Regions. Through this ancient road connecting the north and south of the Qinling Mountains, silk, tea and other items from the Han River basin such as Shiquan were continuously transported to Chang’an, and then from Chang’an to Western Europe via the Silk Road. Today, Shiquan has more than 70,000 acres of mulberry gardens and nearly 10,000 sericulture farmers. It is the hometown of sericulture in China and the largest sericulture county in northwest China. In 2021, the total output value of Shiquan’s sericulture industry will reach 1.8 billion yuan.
Employment at the doorstep of farmers’ homes is becoming more and more promising
Cantonese mulberries, red fruits, white jade kings, white pearls… In Mingxing Village, Chihe Town, in the beautiful Sanghai Expo Park covering an area of 250 acres, more than 10 varieties of mulberries are ushering in the picking season. . In addition to tourists who come to the park to experience the fun of picking and enjoy the pastoral scenery, there are also local villagers in twos and threes walking among the mulberry trees to harvest their sweetness.
“My wages for picking mulberries for one day are 100 yuan. There are more than 20 days in the whole picking season. If I come to work every day, I can probably earn more than 2,000 yuan.” Chen Xingfeng, 40 years old, is a villager in Mingxing Village. In addition to the mulberry harvest season, she and other villagers will come to the garden every winter to prune the mulberry trees and whitewash them to prevent diseases and insect pests, and they will also earn part of their income.
“My husband and I both work in the garden. He has a tricycle and usually brings production materials and water to the garden. Last year, we received more than 20,000 yuan in wages.” Chen Xingfeng said that in the past few years, The village has changed a lot, and the industry is booming. “We work outside our home, and we can also take care of everything at home. Our life is becoming more and more prosperous.”
“We have to hire more than 100 villagers to come to the garden to help pick fruits during the entire picking season. We also transfer the land to farmers through the village collective joint-stock economic cooperative. We have funds, technology and markets. After we promote the industry, the village collective The risks of joint-stock economic cooperatives have been reduced, and the income of farmers has also been quite high.” said Song Shibing, the person in charge of Zuimei Sanghai Expo Park in Mingxing Village.
“Sericulture expert” gets rich without forgetting his fellow villagers, hoping that life will become more prosperous
In 1984, in this small mountain town deep in Qinba, an ordinary farmer accidentally discovered a precious cultural relic – “gilt copper silkworm” while panning for gold on the riverbed, which was identified as a gift from the emperor during the Western Han Dynasty. Prizes for big silkworm owners. It is now displayed in the Shaanxi Provincial History Museum.
In Shiquan, there are many folks who have raised silkworms all their lives. Also in 1984, Lai Zhencai and her husband started trying to raise silkworms. What she didn’t expect was that after 38 years of raising sericulture, she became a model sericulture household in the village and a well-known “sericulture expert.”
“Last year, my wife and I raised 60 sheets of large silkworms and more than 700 sheets of small silkworms, and our income reached 150,000 yuan a year.” Lai Zhencai, 59, smiles when he talks about raising silkworms. , “The government not only gave us a subsidy of more than 30,000 yuan to raise silkworms, but also provided silkworm racks and a set of temperature control equipment for free.”
While Lai Zhencai became rich by raising silkworms, he never forgot about his fellow villagers. He often came to guide other silkworm farmers in the village and share his experience in raising silkworms.
Lai Zhencai believes that she has not done enough in the follow-up development of the sericulture industry. In the future, she would like to work hard on the production of mulberry leaf tea, mulberry leaf powder and other food products to upgrade the sericulture industry and increase efficiency.
“Raising silkworms has made us live a good life, and I hope our days will become more prosperous in the future.” Lai Zhencai said.
“New farmers” return to their hometowns to start businesses and join the “big stage” of rural revitalization
Looking around, Mingxing Village is densely planted with mulberry trees all over the mountains and fields. Following the winding path between the mulberry gardens, we came to a hillside and were greeted by a towering three-story foreign-style building. This is the home of Chen Zeyong, a “new farmer” who returned to his hometown to start a business. From time to time, tourists come in and out to enjoy the pastoral scenery and eat farm food. Chen Zeyong’s goal is to turn his home into a well-known ecological farm.
In the spring of 2014, Chen Zeyong, who was in his early 30s, left Shiquan and started working on a construction site in the provincial capital Xi’an. He wanted to make a career, and later moved to Zhengzhou, Nanning and other cities to work hard. In 2021, he made a very important decision in his life: giving up the opportunity to work in a big city and returning to his hometown to start a business.
“Due to rural revitalization, the sericulture industry in my hometown has developed rapidly in recent years. The villagers’ pockets are bulging, the village environment is becoming more and more beautiful, and there are gradually more tourists.” Chen Zeyong said that the changes in the village made him…He felt that his hometown was the place where he could display his ambitions.
Last year, Chen Zeyong spent more than 3 million yuan to build a 3-story small foreign-style building on his family’s original homestead. The first floor is the lobby and kitchen, and the second floor has 13 B&Bs designed according to hotel standards. , the third floor is a private room for tourists to eat.
“During the May Day holiday that just passed, the daily operating income was about 10,000 yuan.” Chen Zeyong said that the farm is in the renovation stage, and green plants and flowers will be planted around it to create a comfortable leisure and vacation space for tourists.
“I am confident that I can build my own farm well!” Chen Zeyong wants to share his experience of returning to his hometown to start a business with young people in the same village who are working hard in other places, hoping that they can also return home to start their own business and make their hometown more beautiful.
“Sericulture is one of the three traditional industries in our village. Since the poverty alleviation, the village has begun to integrate mulberry and tourism. It has built 500 acres of mulberry picking garden and 200 acres of mulberry variety garden. 12 varieties of fruit have been planted in the village. There are nearly 6,000 mulberry trees and sericulture. “Liu Jiaman, secretary of the Party branch of Mingxing Village, said that the per capita income of villagers exceeded 20,000 yuan last year, and the village’s income from sericulture and mulberry processing exceeded 100 million yuan.
“Relying on sericulture tourism, we can drive people to increase their income.” When talking about the goal of rural revitalization, Liu Jiaman said, “Let young people who go out to work return to their hometowns to participate in industrial construction, so that people can earn money at their doorsteps, and their lives will be better and better. .”
Nowadays, Shiquan has built a complete industrial chain from seedlings and mulberry planting, sericulture and reeling, twisting and weaving silk to the development of various sericulture by-products, relying on the historical culture of “gilt copper silkworms” and the advantages of local sericulture resources. . Mulberry mushrooms, mulberry wine, mulberry leaf tea, mulberry leaf powder… In this Qinling mountain city, with the development and utilization of sericulture by-products and the vigorous development of sericulture ecological cultural tourism, there are many more sericulture farmers. A good way to get rid of poverty and become rich.
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