Shouning County Ecological Tea Plantations

Shouning County Ecological Tea Plantations

Shouning is a typical mountainous agricultural county characterized by “nine parts mountains, half a part water, and half a part fields.” The tea industry is a traditional leading sector, with 118,000 mu of tea plantations currently in operation, of which the Fuyun No. 6 variety alone accounts for 105,000 mu. However, as the Fuyun No. 6 variety has lost its advantages of “early sprouting, early picking, and early market entry” during cultivation, it can no longer meet market consumption demands, resulting in low production efficiency. In the winter of 2007, Shouning County proposed the vision of building a “new ecological tea town on the Fujian–Zhejiang border,” committing to tea variety improvement and the development of ecological tea plantations, optimizing the industrial structure, and improving production efficiency.

Shouning County has formulated preferential policies and increased financial investment to support the development of ecological tea farming, pursuing a path of sustainable tea production. Various types of agricultural support funds and county-level matching funds have been integrated, providing subsidies of 1,000 yuan per mu for contiguous tea bases with an area of 30 mu or more that pass inspection; 500 yuan per mu for villages with a total planting area of 50 mu and individual farmers cultivating at least 1 mu of contiguous tea, upon passing inspection; a 20% subsidy on the purchase price of oolong tea processing machinery for specialized households or cooperatives; and a subsidy of 100 yuan per mu for replanting with high-quality green or white tea varieties, following the same criteria. In addition, tea technical training sessions have been intensified for farmers across villages, with 15 training sessions held to date, training a total of 1,500 participants. Furthermore, efforts have been made to cultivate and support leading tea enterprises, signing agreements with companies to purchase fresh tea leaves at guaranteed prices, thereby ensuring the income of tea farmers.