Introduction of Herbal Coffee in Qifeng Town of Lu County Opens a New Channel for Farmers 'Income Increase

On July 18, when the author came to Jinyu Village, Qifeng Town, Lu County, villagers Chen Dazhang and Li Baoshan were busy loosening the soil and weeding the herbal coffee in the field. "if the harvest is good in August this year, he will continue to expand the planting scale." Pointing to the coffee on the Banpo, Chen Dazhang said, "We have grown corn, sorghum, wheat and other crops, but this is the first time we have grown herbal coffee."

Herbal coffee blossoms

Herbal coffee bears fruit

The herbal coffee grown in Qifeng Town was introduced by Sichuan Sheng Yanghong Agricultural Technology Development Co., Ltd. According to reports, herbal coffee is a kind of wild plant of Rutaceae, which has been growing under Brazilian woody coffee trees for many years. It has the functions of diuresis, eyesight, refreshing, enhancing brain memory and anti-aging. It is a new resource of health food.

Chen Dazhang and Li Baoshan are managing herbal coffee.

"I haven't practiced sowing. I don't know until after this year's harvest that the yield is high and low. I will continue to plant if the yield is high." Villager Li Baoshan put down his hoe and explained.

In March this year, Chen Dazhang, Li Baoshan and others each took out about 1 mu of land and began to plant. Although it is the first year to popularize planting, in Jinyu Village, there are more than 240 farmers who grow coffee like Chen Dazhang, with a planting area of 500 mu, some farmers have planted about 5 mu, while others have only planted a few points of land.

The technical guidance is guiding Chen Dazhang to manage the coffee.

In order to allay farmers' concerns and ensure that farmers have a good harvest, Sichuan Sheng Yanghong Agricultural Technology Development Co., Ltd., which signed a coffee purchase contract with farmers, has also specially sent coffee planting technical instructors.

"the yield of herbal coffee can reach 250kg per mu, and the order purchase is carried out at the price of 10 yuan / kg, and the guaranteed income of farmers per mu of coffee land is 2000 yuan." Li Zhanyi, technical instructor of coffee planting, told me. Li Zhanyi comes to the village 3-4 times a month to guide farmers in fertilizing, weeding, and publicizing the knowledge of disease and pest prevention.

"Last time, the people sent by the company said that, like the coffee seedlings I grow now, they can manage more than NT $3, and if they can really manage NT $3 at harvest, not to mention NT $3, it will be NT $2.5." When it comes to income, Chen Dazhang and others are full of hope.

"there are a lot of Rain Water this year, but it's too bad that the sorghum on the other side of the soil has empty shells. But there is nothing wrong with this coffee, no matter whether Rain Water is more or less. " Chen Dazhang pointed to the coffee in his field and the sorghum opposite to him and told me that looking at the coffee growing well in the field, Chen Dazhang pointed out what he was satisfied with: it was easier to manage than growing other crops, and it didn't take much labor. He only needed to loosen the soil and weed at ordinary times. Compared with sorghum, the input of fertilizer was less, and it was less affected by the weather.

Herbal coffee grown by farmers

"Coffee flowers can be picked as tea, coffee fruit can be sold to companies as drinks, and even coffee trees can be processed into fodder. Growing coffee is a pretty beautiful thing for farmers." Zeng Wang, deputy mayor of Qifeng Town, said, "but for the Qifeng town government, the risk and pressure are quite great."

"at the beginning, we were also confused about whether this coffee was suitable for our place to grow, how its products were, and whether the product suppliers would actually buy them." Zeng Wang, deputy mayor of Qifeng town, said so. In order to dispel this doubt, last year Qifeng Town led some town and village cadres to go deep into Shengyanghong Agricultural Technology Development Co., Ltd., and the company also sent special personnel to Jinyu Village for soil testing to test whether local conditions are suitable for coffee growth. After all the conditions met the requirements, the town government also required the company to pay part of the purchase deposit before the two sides finally reached an agreement to sign the acquisition contract.

"if the coffee harvest is good this year, we will continue to innovate the farming model next year, popularizing and planting 3000 mu on the basis of the original 500mu." Zeng Wang, deputy mayor of Qifeng town, said so.