The development of selenium-rich tea industry in Pingli County, Shaanxi Province has driven farmers to increase their income and become rich

China News Service, Shaanxi Pingli, September 24 (Reporter Li Yifan) Among the thousands of miles of Qinba Mountains, selenium-rich fertile soil nourishes thousands of hectares of tea gardens. The young leaves are a unique ecological gift, and they are also the green foundation for counties in the Qinba hinterland to deeply cultivate specialty industries, promote rural revitalization, and drive people to become rich.

A reporter from China News Network recently visited Pingli County, Ankang City, Shaanxi Province and learned that local tea farmers grow tea to protect green and revitalize the countryside, helping Qinba's good products come out of the mountains, allowing the selenium-rich industry to benefit thousands of families, and painting a happy picture of ecological enrichment and people's happiness.

On September 22, in Ankang Pingli Yi Tea Company, the sales staff were live broadcasting. Photo by Li Yifan

Pingli County, deep in Qinba, has excellent ecology, suitable water and soil, and produces selenium-rich tea with good quality. In the past, the mountains were high and the roads were far away, making it difficult for merchants to enter. Tea farmers often worried about the lack of sales for their tea.

"Seeing that the tea grown in the beautiful mountains and rivers of my hometown could not be sold, I was very anxious. I always wanted to do something for my hometown and the villagers." Wang Xiumei, the person in charge of Pingli County Selenium-rich Tang Tea Co., Ltd., said about her original intention of returning to her hometown to start a business and devote herself to the development of the selenium-rich tea industry.

For more than ten years, she has led her fellow villagers to grow tea and conduct online live broadcasts, turning the good tea hidden deep in the mountains into a popular product. Wang Xiumei said frankly that on the road to taking root in her hometown and striving to start a business, the caring guidance and precise empowerment of women's federation organizations at all levels have become a solid support for her on the way forward.

After the industry began to take shape, Wang Xiumei did not stop. She keenly captured the development opportunities of the digital economy, decisively formed a professional e-commerce team, and explored the construction of an integrated industrial chain of "planting-processing-sales". "I am now more like a 'chain owner', connecting the links of planting, processing and sales, and driving more people to increase their income and become rich in this chain." This is how Wang Xiumei defines her new role.

Up to now, the "e-commerce + cooperative + base + farmer" interest linkage mechanism established by Wang Xiumei has opened up the entire industrial chain of planting, processing, live broadcasting, and sales, and has driven more than 4,000 local farmers to participate in specialty industries. The average annual income of farmers has increased by more than 10,000 yuan; it has assisted the transformation and upgrading of more than 70 small and micro enterprises, and sold more than 300 kinds of agricultural products and handicrafts on a consignment basis.

On September 22, children from Ankang Pingli learned the art of tea ordering. Photo by Li Yifan

The reporter noticed that in order to break the bottleneck of the industry and stimulate development vitality, Pingli County took the initiative to seize the new tea consumption trend, lay out a new track, promote the transformation of tea cultivation from "one season a year" to "three seasons a year", and extend the category from a single green tea to matcha, black tea, etc., to extend and strengthen the chain, improve quality, efficiency and value, and fully promote the iterative upgrading of the tea industry.

Hu Xueqin, the person in charge of the Pingli selenium matcha demonstration base, took the initiative to benchmark the county's tea industry development layout and teamed up with other institutions to build a 30-acre selenium matcha demonstration base. During the management and maintenance of the tea gardens, 85% to 95% shading technology is adopted, organic fertilizers, compound fertilizers and green manures are used. Green methods such as agricultural control, physical control and biological control are used to control pests and diseases to ensure the quality of selenium-rich matcha tea in an all-round way. It will not only help the transformation and upgrading of the local tea industry, but also drive more people to find employment and increase income.

On September 22, a scene at Pingli Selendi Matcha Demonstration Base. Photo by Li Yifan

"For young women, we welcome them to join the Women's Village Broadcasting Alliance and engage in online live broadcasting; for older women, we provide free training to teach them skills, allowing them to use their free time to pick tea leaves at the base and earn income." Hu Xueqin said that by providing flexible employment positions, the base turns "idle people into workers, idle time into busy time, and green leaves into gold."

The industrial model of Pingli Sedi Matcha Demonstration Base has been continuously optimized, and the results of enriching the people have been continuously highlighted. The radiation has led to the construction of 800 acres of standardized tea gardens in the surrounding areas, with an annual output of over 100 tons of high-quality tencha, and annual sales revenue exceeding 16 million yuan. In the next step, Pingli County will focus on the "three modernization" paths of base standardization, processing scale, and product marketization, promote the four-dimensional integration of matcha with specialty agriculture, diversified foods, cultural tourism experience, and e-commerce sales, and implement measures such as financial guarantees, equipment subsidies, leasing discounts, R&D support, and brand empowerment. (over)