After more than ten years of deep cultivation under the forest, women returning home have become national experts in forestry and grassland

On the afternoon of August 19th, the heat had not dissipated and the outdoor heatwave was overwhelming. Walking into Tanzi Village, Lanwu Village, Huangdu Town, Yingshan County, Nanchong City, Sichuan Province, the walnut trees are lush with branches and leaves, and the fruits are hanging all over the branches. Chinese medicinal herbs such as Polygonatum sibiricum and Acorus tatarinowii are lush under the forest, and chickens and ducks sing happily in the woods. In the base, Zhang Xiaohua was carefully examining the condition of the beehives under the forest, with sweat beads covering his dark cheeks. Who would have thought that a soil expert who has been rooted in the mountains and forests all year round and is proficient in understory planting and breeding techniques would still be a technical supervisor of a company working outside more than a decade ago.

Returning home to start a business and planting hope in the mountain village

Many years ago, Zhang Xiaohua worked with her lover in Fuzhou. With her diligence and willingness to work, she became the technical director of a local electronics factory. Her lover ran the business, and the family had a stable income, leading a prosperous life. I bought a commercial house in the town early and built a villa in the village. I am a well-known migrant worker in the local area.

In 2010, Zhang Xiaohua bid farewell to the coastal city where she had worked hard for many years and returned to her hometown of Lanwu Village to take care of her elderly family and school going children. Laundry, cooking, taking care of the elderly, tutoring children with homework, and spending daily household chores at home, she, who studied electronics at a vocational school, felt unwilling.

Lanwu Village belongs to the hilly and arid mountainous area, with high mountains, steep slopes, barren land, and inconvenient transportation. The two walnut trees next to her old house, after decades of wind and rain, still have deep roots and lush leaves. The walnuts produced in that year will be sold for over 4000 yuan. A chance observation gave her hope for the development of the mountains. Planting walnut trees not only does not change the nature of the forest land, but also improves efficiency. "After consulting relevant information and comparing the production conditions of walnut trees, Zhang Xiaohua decided to first utilize his more than 10 acres of forest land.

The news spread, and many neighbors expressed their willingness to entrust the idle forest land to her for management. Faced with everyone's trust, Zhang Xiaohua made a promise on the spot: "I will bear the cost of repairing roads, building water tanks, and buying saplings. When the walnut trees generate income, I will distribute 25% of the output as dividends to everyone. When you work in the garden, I will pay you." In this way, 18 households became shareholders of the Xingfu Garden Fruit Tree Planting Professional Cooperative in Yingshan County.

Repairing roads, building water tanks, planting trees, laying pipelines, and installing power lines all require sweat and real money. After a busy schedule, Zhang Xiaohua lost more than ten pounds, and the couple's savings from years of working were all put into it. Despite facing challenges such as drought induced seedling death and pest infestations, she did not give up easily. Instead, she took turns replanting and remedying the situation, and the walnut seedlings gradually grew into forests. By 2020, there will be nearly 1000 hanging fruit trees with a maximum annual yield of over 6000 kilograms. Walnuts are sorted and packaged into gift boxes, processed into amber walnut kernels, and the "leftovers" of amber walnut kernels are used for oil extraction. The product quickly opened up sales channels.

Ten years of honing and leading wealthy neighbors to win honors

Her greatest strength is her love for learning, courage to explore, and willingness to work. "This is her husband Guo Yangchun's evaluation of Zhang Xiaohua. Since diving into the agricultural and forestry industry, learning grafting, management and maintenance, seeking guidance from teachers, watching agricultural science and education programs, reading books on breeding techniques, and searching for information online have become Zhang Xiaohua's daily habits.

In order to maximize the utilization of forest resources, Zhang Xiaohua began exploring a three-dimensional planting and breeding model in 2016. First, watermelons were intercropped under walnut forests, and as the seedlings grew, traditional Chinese medicinal herbs such as Polygonatum sibiricum and Acorus tatarinowii were planted. At the same time, beekeeping and ecological chicken farming were carried out in the forest, and the methods of planting and breeding were mastered through continuous practice. In 2023, Zhang Xiaohua registered the "Lan Yu'an" agricultural product trademark, giving the cooperative's agricultural products their own brand. Following the trend of e-commerce development, she also attempted to shoot short videos and conduct live streaming sales, selling local specialty products such as chicken, duck, goose eggs, walnuts, honey, peanuts, etc. to big cities such as Beijing, Guangzhou, and Shanghai. Both online and offline efforts have been made, and the cooperative's annual sales revenue has exceeded millions of yuan.

One person's wealth is not considered wealth, everyone's wealth is considered wealth. After the development of the industry, Zhang Xiaohua never forgot her neighbors and fellow villagers, insisting on using cooperatives as carriers to promote the development model of "leading demonstration+technical guidance+order acquisition". Whenever fellow villagers encounter difficulties in planting and breeding, they consult and seek advice from her, and she always responds to their requests with all her resources, either through video remote guidance or on-site "consultation".

Lanwu Village is rich in honey plant resources. Three groups of villagers, Ran Chongguang, were once stung by bees and have always been afraid of beekeeping. Under the constant encouragement of Zhang Xiaohua, he tried beekeeping, and Zhang Xiaohua helped him introduce beekeeping and technology for free. Nowadays, Ran Chongguang has grown from one box of bees to eight boxes, producing honey that sells for over 60 yuan per kilogram. Under the influence of Zhang Xiaohua, more and more farmers actively participate in the planting of traditional Chinese medicinal materials under the forest, and many farmers have increased their income by over 10000 yuan.

With her exploration and guidance, we avoided detours and broadened the avenues for increasing income, "sighed Guo Houxue, a farmer of Huangjing. In the 2016 and 2021 township people's congress elections, Zhang Xiaohua was consecutively elected as a representative of Huangdu Town People's Congress.

With rich practical experience accumulated through long-term roots in the front line, Zhang Xiaohua was appointed as a local expert in forestry and grassland in Sichuan Province by the Forestry and Grassland Bureau in September 2024; In February of this year, he was successfully selected as one of the fifth batch of national forest and grassland experts by the State Forestry and Grassland Administration, becoming the first person in Nanchong City to receive this honor.

Zhang Xiaohua has long been rooted at the grassroots level, exploring agroforestry according to local conditions, accumulating a wealth of practical technical experience, and demonstrating outstanding driving effects. He is truly a national and provincial forestry and grassland expert, "said Chu Yiming, the director of the Yingshan County Forestry Science and Technology Promotion Station.

It is reported that the selection and appointment of national forestry and grassland local experts has been officially launched since 2019, and as of 2026, five rounds of selection and appointment have been completed. The selection targets mainly include "local experts" in the front line of forestry and grassland production and operation, including large-scale planters, cooperative leaders, family farmers, and technical backbone of enterprises. Aiming to leverage their exemplary role in the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, technology promotion, and driving people to increase income and become prosperous, and to solve the "last mile" problem of forestry technology promotion. (Yang Hanguo)