Gengma Autonomous County's Mengjian Township Dazhai Village has been listed as one of the first pilot villages around ancient Tea trees in the province, and its ancient tea garden is included in the first batch of ancient tea tree resources recognized in Lincang City, with 2,600 mu of ancient tea gardens.
In recent years, Dazhai Village in Mengjian Township, Gengma Autonomous County, has seized the opportunity to integrate into the city's “Party Building Leading Bingdao Xigui Mangfei Tea Industry Demonstration Area” construction, continuously improving the quality of tea, growing the tea brand, and gradually integrating rural tourism, slowly unfolding a new blueprint for high-quality development of Dazhai's tea industry.
To improve quality and maintain the pure flavor, Dazhai Village has set a development direction towards green and organic tea. The scientific management principles of no chemical fertilizers, no pesticides, no intercropping, and no summer tea picking have been written into village regulations and the Mengjian Township Dazhai Village Tea Garden Management Regulations (Trial). According to the distribution of the tea mountains, management responsibility grids have been divided, and grid supervisors, associations, tea farmers, and tea enterprises share the “four-party” management responsibilities, collectively safeguarding the “wildness” of Dazhai tea. In the second quarter of 2024, the output of Dazhai tea was 37.04 tons, with a value of 3.3336 million yuan. Cooperatives, tea enterprises, and tea farmers all benefited from the improvement in tea quality, gradually forming a “triple win” situation in economic, ecological, and social benefits.
To enhance reputation and strengthen the brand, Dazhai Village aims to expand the tea industry and create competitive tea brands through deep processing. Relying on various agricultural product sales platforms such as the Water Splashing Festival and the Green Seedling Festival, Dazhai tea is actively promoted and sold externally. An “internet + cooperative + farmer” model is being optimized and upgraded in rural e-commerce, establishing a network marketing platform for tea products. Through the efforts of tea farmers, tea-making enterprises, tea associations, and village group cadres, Dazhai's ancient tea trees have gained some fame in recent years!
Integrating culture and tourism, and touring the tea gardens, illuminates the “culture” of Dazhai's ancient tea trees. The climate in the area where the ancient tea trees are planted is cool, with mist throughout the four seasons, creating a harmonious Landscape of “tea in the forest, village in the tea garden, people in the picture.” Combining the ancient tea gardens with the unique “three marriages” customs of the Yellow Cloth Wa people, weaving skills, dietary habits, and more, creates unique tourist experiences such as tea picking, processing tours, folklore experiences, skill appreciation, and food tasting. Efforts are made to cultivate eco-tourism, rural tourism, and agricultural experience tourism industries, driving the high-quality development of various industries. The lives of villagers are improving, and a new picture of a beautiful countryside suitable for living and working is unfolding.
“The tea industry in Dazhai provides over 1,500 seasonal jobs each year, increasing the income of more than 490 people who have been lifted out of poverty by over 2,000 yuan. People's lives are better, and they are more motivated to develop. I believe that with everyone's joint efforts, we will surely create new glories in the development of the tea industry on this land of Dazhai Village,” says Zhang Zhenghe, Party General Branch Secretary of Dazhai Village.
(Contributors: Liu Li, Jiang Zhoneng, Han Chaoyu)