‘Fruit seedling matchmakers’ in Xiangxi

Since December last year, 247 “Gold Scissors” women grafting volunteer service team members from Changputang Village of Fenghuang County in Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture have been busy in the fields every day. Known as “fruit seedling matchmakers”, they not only provide grafting services for 6,000 mu (400 hectares) of fruit trees in the village, but also work outside Hunan Province.

Increasing number of team members

Accurately find the right branches. Cut, insert and bind them. It takes less than 10 seconds to graft twigs of a new variety of diospyros armata onto another tree.

On March 14, Tian Xiangqun was working hard with two other team members in the diospyros armata base in Qiliangqiao Village, Tuojiang Town, Fenghuang County. She taught others the technique for free while grafting, which is a rule inherited by Tian from the older generation of the grafting team. In 2013, Wang Anquan, the then village secretary, proposed gathering the women with grafting technique in the village to set up a “women grafting team”. Tian and 15 other women became the first batch of team members. Later, Tian served as the leader of the grafting team.

The team members are neighbors of the same village. They share their technique without reservation. The number of the grafting team members has grown from 16 to 247. They are well-known inside and outside Changputang Village.

Orders inside and outside province received
 
Lei Zhiping, a member of the women grafting team, grafted kiwi fruit trees in Songbai Town, Yongshun County, Xiangxi Prefecture. In the endless kiwi fruit garden, over 10 team members were busy working with bamboo hats.

With a small knife, they grafted a kiwifruit seedling in about 10 seconds.

Since an order was received in December 2022, the team members have been to Songbai Town to graft kiwifruit trees for many times in batches.

160 younger team members under the age of 45 went to Huaihua, Guizhou, Chongqing and other places for kiwifruit seedling grafting. Because of the large number of orders, the members were divided into small teams of more than 10 people to go out for grafting. With good technique and reputation, the grafting team’s orders have increased year by year. At the Fenghuang Yamijia Kiwifruit Service Station in Changputang Village, seven members of the women grafting volunteer service team were working at the table.

They spent less than 4 seconds grafting a kiwifruit seedling. Last November, the service station received an order for grafting 600,000 kiwifruit seedlings. The seven-member grafting team has kept busy working since last December.
 
As the “Best Civilized Practice Volunteer Service Project” of Hunan Province in 2020, the “Gold Scissors” women grafting team in Changputang has helped 323 households in surrounding villages graft fruit seedlings in 1,000 mu (about 66.67 hectares) of orchards, and helped 132 households to plant 600 mu (40 hectares) of kiwifruit trees. They have worked in 13 provinces (districts, cities), including Hunan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Shaanxi.