Five years ago, a group of nine-leaf green pepper seedlings from chongqing planted in purple rock in the city of sunyang, opening the way for the first large-scale planting of pepper in hunan. Today, the city of chenyang has 12 core areas of pepper cultivation, with an area of 18,000 acres。
On 21 january, under the leadership of liu jia, chairman of the board of directors of the pilgrim agricultural development co. Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as the pillong company), the journalist arrived at the piper base at the twin tong village, yuyang city. Despite the cold and cold weather that has just gone through, a herb tree stands still in the snow and spreads. And look away, and in this winter, when everything is in ruins, the slopes before it are still plentiful and silent。
In the snow, there's a strong and strong pepper tree。
A two-way industry called ice break
The peppers are often seen as the "exclusive business card" of yunyugawa. Why can it thrive on the purple shale of the sun? The story begins with a two-way journey across a thousand miles。
In order to tackle the challenges of the ecological governance of purple shale, in 2020 zhongyang organized six missions to the “hongqing zin village” of china. After repeatedly comparing varieties and assessing prospects, the olive branch was thrown at the entrepreneur, liu jia。
“they talk not only about the project, but also about the plight of the mountain and the expectations of the farmers, which has touched me.” liu jia recalled. In august of the same year, the company was established and in october the first seedlings were planted in the town。
The city of xianyang is fully supportive of the creation of an industrial programme that combines the multisectoral forces of forestry, agriculture, finance and industry, and forms a “one industry, one team, one plan, one policy”。
However, the path to entrepreneurship is not an easy one. The drought in the summer of 2022 and the freeze of spring 2023 allowed the first seedlings to survive only 30 per cent, with companies losing more than $1 million at one time。
In the face of difficulties, the relevant departments have been active in coordinating financial and land transfers for enterprises and have invited associate professor sun qicon of the south central forestry university of science and technology to serve as a science and technology commission to provide business with a full chain of technology from seedling to processing。
Associate professor sun jiikang, a science and technology specialist from the south central forestry university of science and technology, is working on a ground-based research on peppers in the city。
With the help of both policy and technology, liu jia and the team have been maintaining their bases day and night, producing new varieties of “prey” that are fully adapted to the local environment through repeated selections, specks and re-emergence. She pointed to the current introduction to the paprika forest that “the paprika” contained 115 mg/g, an increase of 228 per cent over origin, which is one of the currently high-moderate varieties of pepper in the country. "the peppers are not just sore, they also have the advantage of a grain of meat." - 8,000 peppers in the yungugawa region are enough, and 5,000 grains from the sun are enough."
At present, this high-quality pepper has established a reputation among distributors and has long-standing partnerships with enterprises such as bottom fishing, with short supply and demand. Xioyang became the first county (city) to grow peppers on a large scale in hunan, with an area of 11,000 acres, which was awarded the title “china pepper county (city)” by the china economics forestry association。
Technological formulas make the mountains green
The city of chenyang has an area of 1. 89 million acres of purple shale, which is widely spread over eight counties (municipalities) in the cities of chennam county, yanyang city and chang ning city, and over 800,000 acres of purple shale are located in sunyang and south china alone. Because of the shallowness of its soil and the looseness of its structure, it is highly susceptible to erosion and to the formation of “red deserts” under rain。
Since the 1990s, zhiyang has tried to plant a variety of plants, such as date trees, bamboo and dragon sage, but has not found an ideal solution either because of survival or because of low efficiency. “there has always been a desire to find a tree that both improves ecology and increases farmers' incomes.” the senior forestry engineer, shelyan joan road, of the sunyang city forestry authority, has been looking forward to many years。
The peppers, which just happens to provide the best solution to the ecological plus economy. Liu jia described the four seasons of precipitous, drought-resistant, root-based properties that match the height of purple shale, together with hunan's strong weather advantage of rain from march to may, as creating a central competitive advantage for “precious” high-saltitude, high aromatic and high-quality. The capricorn content in “premium” is up to 115 mg/g, far above the national pepper level。
The success of pepper is rooted in continuous technological innovation. By improving their varieties, the scientific team has significantly improved its ability to withstand drought and freeze, resulting in “gold fruit” in the wilderness。
Eco-efficiency has followed. For the third year in a row, data from the eco-monitoring station of the zhongyang municipal forestry service show that, for more than three years, the production of peppers, soil nudity rates have dropped from more than 80 per cent to less than 30 per cent, surface runoff rates have decreased by 50 per cent and soil erosion by 60 per cent。
In the town of xianyang, the old desolate hill of “dry slopes and dry dusts of the rainy season” has now formed a series of kilometres of green pepper forest belts, with summer temperatures of 3-5°c lower than the permafrost area in the surrounding area, a 15% increase in the relative humidity of the air and a 20% increase in the negative ion content, which has become a “natural oxygen bar” for the local population to walk in leisure。
Liu jia (left one) accompanied the director-general of the city association of geriatrics (left two) in a research study at the piper base in yuda town。
A paprika tree, a rich road
The development of industry depends on replicable models and farmer participation。
Since 2021, the company has been implementing the “corporate + village collective + cooperative + farmer” model, and now has six companies, four cooperatives and 54 households. Liangbo of twin tong village was one of the first participants. In that year, he contracted 60 acres of wasteland to try to grow。
Although born in rural areas, he has never worked in agriculture. Liangbo recalled that the first days had been particularly difficult, cutting weeds and ditching fields in the wilderness. In extreme weather, they were afraid to leave all night。
Time is running out, and now liangbo has long gone away from his frenzy and panic. From 19 to 22 january, the city of chenyang was hit by the first cold tide of the year and by cold and cold rain. In the face of a possible cold attack, leungbo responded to the problem by applying anti-frozen fluids to the pepper tree in advance, in accordance with technical instructions, and by putting in place firm anti-cool measures。
From “experience” to “technology”, his base is now equipped with an integrated water fertilizer drip irrigation system, meteorological observation stations, with regular mentoring by company technicians and forestry experts from the sunyang. Today, ryambo has grown to 260 acres. Last year, his first crop of precipitous peppers produced a net income of $0. 3 million, with a net profit of approximately $5,000 for acres, equal to several to more than ten times the proceeds of traditional crops such as rice and maize。
“besides the papi field, there are days to run!” the joy of leambo is all over the table. At the age of 15, he entered the city with his family and never thought he would return to the countryside and be able to live on a hundred acres of ground with a red fire。
The business booms and the country booms. The vice-secretary of the kuita township party, the mayor of the town, is impressed by the fact that the pepper industry has been effective in promoting land migration and the employment of villagers, bringing the image of the village to the same level as the happiness of the villagers。
A comparison of the pre- and post-planting of peppers at the bitong village, yuyang city。
To date, the company has led to the planting of more than 40,000 acres of pepper in the province, covering 17 townships and several counties (cities) in the province, leading to the employment of more than 20,000 people, with real ecological and economic gains。
Looking to the future, the blueprint for the pepper industry is clear: the expansion of intelligent cultivation, the development of deep processing, the creation of the brand of pepper, and the exploration of new integration models such as the "piper + book brigade" "piper + cultivation"。
A small piece of pepper is carrying the ecological mission of repairing the “red desert”, placing the hopes of the rural renewal on the ground and writing a solid green survey, which also contributes to the integration of ecological governance and industry in similar areas of the country, with replicable and replicable practices. Perhaps in the near future, the smell of soot in the chongqing pot will come from this old wilderness。
