China News Service, Handan, October 11 (Wang Tian translated from Chang Lingshan) After several days of rain, Handan, Hebei ushered in fine weather.
Early in the morning, Duan Congting, a villager in Zhangbian Village, Yonghehui Town, Yongnian District, Handan City, and his family rushed to the rice fields and began to harvest ears by hand.
Duan Congting said that last year, her family’s 8 acres of dry land millet produced more than 6,000 kilograms of millet and sold more than 40,000 yuan. “This year is another bumper year for the growth of this millet”.
The picture shows villagers harvesting millet in Zhangbian Village, Yonghehui Town, Yongnian District, Handan City, Hebei Province.
Photo by Hu Gaolei
Yonghehui Town is located in the western part of Yongnian District and the Zishan hilly area of the Taihang Mountains. It is dry and rainless all year round. Dryland millet has been planted since the Tang Dynasty.
The millet produced is golden in color and full of granules. It is very popular among people. It is the first choice for local residents as a nutritious product and a good gift for relatives and friends. It is known as one of the "Purple Mountain Eight Treasures".
However, as villagers go out to work, the local rural population has dropped sharply, coupled with limited sales, high-quality rice cannot be sold at a good price, and large tracts of land have been abandoned in the western mountainous area of Yongnian, known for the production of small miscellaneous grains, and the traditional cereal planting area has been shrinking year by year. At least, the millet planting area in the western mountainous area is less than 100 mu.
The picture shows villagers harvesting millet in Zhangbian Village, Yonghehui Town, Yongnian District, Handan City, Hebei Province.
Photo by Hu Gaolei
In recent years, in order to broaden the way for villagers in mountainous areas to get rich, Yongnian District has implemented a trinity brand strategy of “region, enterprise, and product”, listed the western mountainous area as a small grain planting base, strived to build a high-quality millet industry cluster, and provided policy support such as trademark registration and quality certification. , Adopting the cooperation model of "enterprise + cooperative + farmer", so that the characteristic industry of dry land millet will reappear.
Zhang Xiaoguang, a villager in Zhangbian Village, originally worked in a state-owned enterprise. The implementation of the local rural revitalization strategy allowed him to see opportunities for rural development.
In 2015, he quit his job in a state-owned enterprise and returned to his hometown to lead the masses to start planting and developing dryland millet and other small miscellaneous grains.
He led the establishment of the Yongnian District Grains Association to provide villagers with high-quality grains for free, and to purchase them at a price of 0.6 to 1 yuan higher than the market price per catty to mobilize the people's enthusiasm for planting.
The picture shows a villager in Zhangbian Village, Yonghehui Town, Yongnian District, Handan City, Hebei Province, packing up vacuum-packed millet for export.
Zhang Lishe
In order to ensure the quality of millet, Zhang Xiaoguang adopted the traditional planting mode through repeated comparative research and practice, from sowing to harvesting, all manual operations, no herbicides, and “four times of hoeing”, so that the grains can fully absorb the unique minerals in the soil. Material, the millet produced completely inherits the quality of the "Purple Mountain Eight Treasures" and has won market recognition.
The products are not only exported to all parts of the country, but also exported to Malaysia, Australia and other countries to open up overseas markets.
The reporter learned from the Propaganda Department of Yongnian District Party Committee that this year's new millet sold more than 100,000 jin as soon as it went on the market.
At present, more than 1,000 mu of dryland millet has been developed in the west of Yongnian, which has driven more than 100 villagers in 13 villages to increase their income.
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