Bumper harvest of buckwheat in Xinchang Town

In early winter, autumn buckwheat gets ripened in Heshui Village, Xinchang Town, Fenghuang County, Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture. A harvester was busy harvesting the buckwheat.

In recent years, Fenghuang County has promoted the high-quality development of the buckwheat industry through policy support, seed selection and breeding, and industrial integration development. Xinchang Town has developed characteristic agricultural industries through the model of “company plus cooperative plus farmer”. After several years of hard work, it has over 10,000 mu (about 666.67 hectares) of tartary buckwheat.

Since Dr. Zhou Meiliang from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences established a team for the breed conservation and propagation expansion of buckwheat germplasm resources and new variety selection in the Wuling Mountain area in 2018, Heshui Village has been designated as a seed breeding base, marking a new journey for the development of the buckwheat industry in Xinchang Town. Xinchang Town strives to develop into a buckwheat town. It has widely promoted the planting model of “buckwheat plus” to fully utilize limited land resources and improve rural economic benefits. With the increase of the planting scale, the income of the buckwheat industry has reached over one million yuan.

Now, Huoma Village, Ciyan Community, and Fengmulin Village in the town have over 1,700 mu (about 113.33 hectares) of kiwifruit and tartary buckwheat with the interplanting model. Guanzhai Village and Mugentang Village have interplanted over 2,000 mu (about 133.33 hectares) of oil tea and tartary buckwheat. Dapo Village has planted over 500 mu (about 33.33 hectares) of buckwheat flowers to develop the agricultural tourism. Xinhui Potato Industry Co., Ltd. has launched popular buckwheat products such as buckwheat noodles and buckwheat flour by improving processing technology.

Last year, Fenghuang County planted a total of 100,000 mu (about 6,666.67 hectares) of tartary buckwheat, with a total industrial chain output value exceeding 200 million yuan, which helped over 4,000 people in Fenghuang County to increase over 1,000 yuan in per capita income and the collective economic income of the villages by over 5 million yuan.

“Buckwheat has become one of the leading industries in our town to enrich the people and strengthen the town,” said an official of the town, adding that the development of the buckwheat industry has also promoted the integration of agriculture and tourism and helped rural revitalization.