Cigar tobacco planting base.
Chuanguan News reporter Yuan Chenglin text/photo
"The income of planting 7 acres is more than 20,000 yuan, which is no worse than a part-time job." At noon on August 1, Liu Mingfu carried back a large piece of tobacco from the field, and the 51-year-old villager of Yashi Village, Fengcheng Town, Xuanhan County, was smiling.
Since the end of July, the cigar tobacco leaves in Fengcheng Town have entered the harvest period. In many places in the town, you can see the steel frame drying sheds for tobacco leaves, and the freshly harvested green tobacco leaves are strung together by a rope, dried and then tied and sold to the tobacco purchasing station in the town.
Dried cigar tobacco leaves.
Fengcheng Town is a mountain town in the north-central part of Xuanhan County, with an average altitude of about 1,000 meters. In 2021, combined with the history and altitude climatic conditions of burley tobacco planting in Fengcheng Town in the past, the Xuanhan County Tobacco Monopoly Bureau planted the first batch of 50 acres of cigar tobacco leaves in Fengcheng Town. In the past four years, the planting area of cigar tobacco in Fengcheng Town has expanded year by year, reaching 1,350 mu this year, and the estimated output value is more than 7 million yuan.
Xiang Chunlin, mayor of Fengcheng Town, told reporters that the Xuanhan County Tobacco Monopoly Bureau built a new tobacco leaf drying shed, Shanpingtang and other industrial infrastructure in Fengcheng Town, and sent a technician to be stationed in 7 villages in the town, from March to prepare seedlings to complete the harvest and drying in August, and teach cultivating weeding, fertilization and watering, pest control, ditch drainage, topping and budding and other technologies.
In Sunjiawan (small place name) in Group 7 of Yashi Village, Sichuan Provincial Institute of Tobacco Science, Sichuan Agricultural University and other units jointly created a "high-quality wrapper shade cultivation demonstration field" and a demonstration variety "Chuanxue No. 1". "This was originally an abandoned land, but now it is a good place to grow cigars and tobacco." Luo Xiuzhang, secretary of the party branch of Yashi Village, sighed.
Demonstration field for high-quality wrapper shade cultivation.
"Tobacco cultivation is a real income-increasing industry for the villagers." Xiang Chunlin said that tobacco is an order-based production model, and the villagers do not worry about sales. In terms of price, cigar tobacco leaves are divided into more than 10 grades, the most expensive can be sold for more than 80 yuan a catty, the cheapest is about 15 yuan per catty, and the average price is about 24 yuan according to the market in previous years.
At present, Fengcheng Town has developed 1,350 acres of cigar tobacco in accordance with the model of "spontaneous planting by the masses, active planting by large households, and taking the lead in planting by village collectives", covering 7 villages and 1 community. Fengcheng Town is the raw material supply base for cigars and tobacco leaves determined by China Tobacco Group in Sichuan and Shandong.
Dried cigar tobacco leaves.
Cigar tobacco has become a new engine for villagers in Fengcheng Town to increase their income. This alpine town is building a "three high" wealth industry: alpine fruits represented by cherries, high-yield corn, and high-end tobacco.