After listening to the town's work report and having lunch, Chen Xing and his team began to go to the countryside. Chen Xing would visit six mountain villages on this trip, but he would only choose two of them to stay overnight. As the mayor, although he wanted to visit all the poor villages one by one, his time was limited. After this trip, he could only stay in Zhaoliang County for five days, which was the limit of the time he could arrange. If he stayed for one or two more days, his other work would be delayed.
Chen Xing's first destination was Xinglin Village. Like most of the poor villages in Xiaoyun Town, Xinglin Village was also a mountainous village. Because of the inconvenient transportation and the lack of developing sideline in the village, the villagers here had no other income except farming. Due to the limited climate conditions, the rice in Xinglin Village could only be harvested once a year. Although there were a large number of fields in the village, they were all mountain fields, which were not suitable for large-scale mechanized farming. It was impossible to become rich by farming.
In other counties and cities in the city, such as Jiang City and other counties and cities near the coast, the rice could be harvested twice a year. Because of the high altitude in Zhaoliang County, the temperature was lower than other places in the city, so the rice could only be harvested once a year. In the car, Yu Zhiyuan chatted with Chen Xing casually. He didn't know this before and thought that Zhaoliang County was the same as other places in the city, where the rice could be harvested twice a year. Later, when he came to Zhaoliang and listened to the local people, Yu Zhiyuan learned this fact. At that time, he was quite surprised. After all, Zhaoliang County also belonged to Jiang City, and Yu Zhiyuan felt it was incredible that there was such a big difference in the planting of crops in the same city.
Compared with Yu Zhiyuan's knowledge, Chen Xing was more knowledgeable in this regard. After all, he had been a leader for many years and had worked in several different places. In Wangshan City, which was also a mountain city, there were also differences between the rice that could be harvested once a year and the rice that could be harvested twice a year in different places.
The car drove along the mountain road. On the uphill road, the leading car in the front suddenly stopped, and the few cars behind could only follow it and hurriedly stepped on the brakes. But it was only for a moment, and the car in the front quickly resumed driving.
"What's going on?" Yu Zhiyuan muttered.
Soon, news came from the front. A wild pangolin suddenly jumped up from the cliff on the side of the mountain road. The car almost ran over it, and the driver could only quickly stop.
The people in front were still talking, but Yu Zhiyuan had already seen the pangolin. He was excited. Mayor, look, pangolin. It's wild and rarely seen.
Are you sure it's wild? Could it be raised by the villagers? Chen Xing asked subconsciously. The moment he asked, he realized how stupid his question was. If they were reared, they wouldn't have released them just like that. If they ran away in the blink of an eye, it would be a great loss to the rearing company. "That's right.
Yu Zhiyuan didn't know that Chen Xing already had the answer, so he still answered with certainty. Mayor, it can't be raised. I've never heard of anyone raising pangolins in Zhaoliang County. However, there are many wild pangolins in the mountains here, which are quite famous in our city. Some hotels specially buy wild pangolins from Zhaoliang at a high price.
Pangolins are first-class protected animals. How dare some people hunt them? These people are really bold. Chen Xing shook his head.
People in the mountains are poor. Coupled with the temptation of money, there will definitely be people who dare to mess around. But the main point is that no one cares about it. No matter how capable the police are, they can't always know that someone is hunting wild pangolins in the mountains. Yu Zhiyuan said.
Hearing those words, Chen Xing could only nod his head and admit that it was the truth. The mountainous region was vast and boundless. Once a person dived into the forest, it would be akin to a grain of sand falling into a river. Who would know that someone was hunting pangolins?
Chen Xing looked out of the window. The wild pangolin showed its head on the hillside again and disappeared in the blink of an eye. This was the first time that Chen Xing saw a wild pangolin. He felt a little emotional. Nowadays, the natural environment was so badly damaged that only places with better natural protection like the mountains could still see some protected wild animals.
The car continued to drive along the mountain road. After about ten minutes, they arrived at their destination, Xinglin Village. From Xinglin Village, there were two more mountain villages. They were also poor villages. Luoyun Village, which was located in the deepest part of the mountain, was the poorest village in the county. Chen Xing would stay in Luoyun Village for the night.
One of the county's poverty alleviation projects was set up in Xinglin Village. It was an agricultural greenhouse project to plant golden thread lotus. This was a precious Chinese herb, known as the "king of medicine" and "magic medicine". It could also be used as a tonic to stew soup.
Golden Line Lotuses were not easy to grow, and wild Golden Line Lotuses were even rarer. This was because Golden Line Lotuses were often eaten by birds before they matured, so it was extremely difficult to harvest wild Golden Line Lotuses. As a result, most of the so-called wild Golden Line Lotuses sold on the market were actually grown in greenhouses. Even so, Golden Line Lotuses could still be sold for a high price. This was because Golden Line Lotuses had very strict requirements for their growing environment. Even if they were grown in greenhouses, it was impossible to supply them on a large scale, which also determined their value.
Accompanied by a group of people, Chen Xing visited the greenhouse planting project of the golden clematis. This was a poverty alleviation project applied by the town and approved by the county. Several million yuan had been invested in the project, and this money naturally came from the county's special poverty alleviation fund. The city had also allocated hundreds of millions of yuan to Zhaoliang County's poverty alleviation fund.
The town invested in this greenhouse project. Other than asking the experts from the municipal bureau of agriculture to guide the planting, the villagers were hired for the daily planting, care, and maintenance of the greenhouse. Due to the high returns, the villagers were also paid a high salary, 2,800 a month. The mayor, Huang Haidong, introduced the greenhouse project to Chen Xing.
Chen Xing was very happy to hear that the villagers were paid 2,800 a month. 2,800 wasn't a high salary in the city, but in the countryside, especially in a mountainous area like Xinglin Village, it was obviously not low. The most important thing was that the villagers could work near their homes.
At the end of last year, many of the villagers who went out to work came back for the New Year. When they heard that the greenhouse offered such a high salary, some of them didn't want to go out anymore. They just wanted to work in the greenhouse. The secretary of the town committee, Gao Xiaobo, also seized the opportunity to interject. As the secretary of the town, he couldn't let the mayor take away this opportunity to show his face in front of the leaders.
Not bad, this poverty alleviation project was very successful. If there were more such good projects in the mountainous areas, the farmers wouldn't have to worry about not being able to get out of poverty. Chen Xing sighed. After thinking for a while, he suddenly asked, "Can this golden thread lotus planting project be replicated?"
"Mayor, I'm afraid it's not possible. We've consulted the experts in the city. Currently, the temperature and soil around Xinglin Village are the most suitable for the growth of golden thread lotus. Luoyun Village, which is a little further in, may be less than a kilometer away from Xinglin Village, but the golden thread lotus cannot be planted in Luoyun Village." Huang Haidong said.
"It seems that the golden thread lotus has very strict requirements for its growth." Chen Xing nodded with a face full of regret. If this kind of greenhouse planting project could be replicated on a large scale, then all the mountainous areas in Zhaoliang County would have this project. That would be a good way to get out of poverty.
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