May 1, 1996 International Labor Day!

At the end of April, the rural areas of central Yunnan have entered the busiest season of the year. In the field where the small spring crops have just been harvested, the tense spring plowing production is in full swing. Just after planting the rice in the fields in the dam area, the corn sowing in the mountainous areas, flue-cured tobacco transplanting and other farm work followed.

Central Yunnan is a region with relatively good economic development in Caiyun Province, and its unique natural geographical environment makes the quality of flue-cured tobacco grown in central Yunnan the best in the country. There are many areas in China that introduced and cultivated flue-cured tobacco earlier than central Yunnan, and the planting area is larger than that in central Yunnan. However, the best intrinsic quality of flue-cured tobacco is in central Yunnan, which is a natural advantage that cannot be filled by manpower. The country's largest tobacco group was also born in central Yunnan, and the local economy in central Yunnan mainly relies on the two tobacco economies of flue-cured tobacco cultivation and cigarette production.

The research on flue-cured tobacco naturally derived from the economy of the two tobaccos, flue-cured tobacco planting, flue-cured tobacco acquisition, tobacco storage, tobacco transportation, flue-cured tobacco deep processing, cigarette production, and packaging materials, printing, and auxiliary materials in the industrial chain of related ancillary processing industry chains...... The emergence of a series of industrial chains has made the economic status of central Yunnan second only to the provincial capital Chuncheng.

Crops are known for their geographical characteristics, and local rural people rely on specialty crops for their survival, which is too many in different parts of the world. The so-called one side of the water and soil to support the other side of the people, and the harmonious coexistence of man and nature is the way of human survival.

Qi Jingtao, who works in a tobacco company, also knows that the two-tobacco economy is unique, and the country's monopoly system on tobacco knows the huge profits of the tobacco industry. The tobacco farmers at the end of the industrial chain are the hardest, most dependent on the weather, the most basic and the weakest link, and they are also the part of the people who have the least profits in the entire industrial chain.

In the absence of a better alternative to cash crops, local villages can only rely on flue-cured tobacco cultivation to increase their economic income.

In central Yunnan at this time, the income from flue-cured tobacco cultivation was the main source of economic income in the local rural areas. Although the income of growing flue-cured tobacco is higher than that of other cash crops, it is also one of the most labor-intensive crops, and the agricultural production time cycle is as long as seven or eight months.

Tobacco farmers plant flue-cured tobacco, after the Spring Festival every year to begin to cultivate tobacco seedlings, begin to transplant the field in May, enter the harvest period of flue-cured tobacco from mid-July to October, and begin to harvest tobacco leaves in batches according to the maturity of each tobacco leaf, concentrate on tobacco leaf roasting, and send it to the local tobacco company designated flue-cured tobacco purchase point after preliminary grading to be sold to the local tobacco company.

In May, the central Yunnan region is in the dry season in normal years, and the weather is sunny and hot. In order to ensure the survival rate of flue-cured tobacco transplanting, flue-cured tobacco transplanting can only be carried out in the afternoon. After transplanting the flue-cured tobacco, water enough to fix the roots, after a night of moisturization, and then water the next morning, it can resist the roasting sun of May and improve the survival rate of tobacco seedlings.

After transplanting, we must also insist on watering once a day in the morning or afternoon to maintain the life characteristics of tobacco seedlings, until June into the rainy season, God began to rain to take over the work of manual watering, flue-cured tobacco began to enter the rapid growth period. During this period, field tillage management is very critical, and one step of fertilization, top dressing, and pest control cannot be wrong.

The demand characteristics of flue-cured tobacco production for the quality of tobacco leaves determine that flue-cured tobacco cannot grow too fertile, otherwise the color and luster cannot be changed during baking, and the grade and quality cannot be improved, and it will become a low-grade tobacco leaf with no income. Of course, you can't grow too thin and have no yield.

In July and August, the central Yunnan region entered the season of many thunderstorms, God was not happy, and made a white dragon to cross the mountain, hail fell all over the sky, other crops may still have some harvests, and the tobacco leaves were absolutely lost, and even suffered a devastating blow.

This kind of hail disaster, which occurs frequently every year, covers a different size and location each time, and there is not much pattern to be found. Tobacco farmers are gambling on luck when they plant flue-cured tobacco every year, and who is unlucky knows. Later, the local government organized relevant units to take artificial rainfall to prevent hail disasters, and insurance companies followed up to guarantee flue-cured tobacco growers.

After the green tobacco leaves are recovered, the tobacco roasting process can not have any mistakes, and the seven or eight days of the roasting room baking process is not well controlled, and the grade of a flue-cured tobacco will be reduced, and all the tobacco will be scrapped.

The whole process of flue-cured tobacco agricultural production cannot be replaced by mechanization, which is basically pure manual follow-up, and the manual investment cycle is very long and the process is very cumbersome. If the labor cost is strictly calculated, the labor value of the flue-cured tobacco planting industry is so low that it is miserable, and the income from flue-cured tobacco planting can only be regarded as the hard-earned money of tobacco farmers.

On May 1, the International Labor Day holiday, Qi Jingtao still went home to help the family do labor as in previous years - transplanting flue-cured tobacco seedlings. This year, his father is going to plant two acres of flue-cured tobacco, and the land has been turned over and leveled. As soon as the tobacco moisture was pulled early this morning, I was ready to take advantage of the May Day holiday for my son and daughter to go home, and the whole family mobilized to start the annual flue-cured tobacco field transplanting.

In May, the days are long and the weather is sunny and hot, so the planting time can only be concentrated in the morning and evening when the temperature is low. Wearing the stars and wearing the moon, getting up early and returning to work in the fields at night, and resting at home when the temperature is high in the daytime, this has also become a habit of labor and rest in the rural areas of central Yunnan to adapt to the weather.

Qi Jingtao didn't even return to his newly rented house after getting off work yesterday, so he went directly from the office to pick up his sister from No. 1 Middle School and rushed home. After lunch, I went up the mountain with my parents to pull tobacco moisture and prepare for today's flue-cured tobacco transplanting. As soon as it was dawn today, Qi Jingtao and his parents went up the mountain, pulled the last piece of tobacco moisture, and waited for the afternoon to go up the mountain to complete the transplanting of flue-cured tobacco.

Qi Jingtao had lunch and finished reading the Chinese mock test questions that Qi Lin completed in the morning. Seeing that the time was almost up, he went upstairs to stare at Qi Lin, who was in the sprint review stage of the college entrance examination, and continued to do the exercises.

"Brother, it's hot, people are sleepy, and I've already done a set of Chinese mock questions in the morning. Let the family take a nap a little longer, and then do math, and in the afternoon, they will go up the mountain to plant smoke. ”

Qi Lin, who was dragged up from the bed by her brother, had a hazy face, and looked innocently at Qi Jingtao, who was eyeing her with a dozen review materials.

"What sleepy, half an hour of sleep is enough for a nap, and you should also pay attention to the lunch break at school should not be too long, the more you sleep, the weaker you are. Come, eat a few bayberry to wake up and fall asleep, hold on, and you will be in a mock college entrance examination. In the days of the college entrance examination, the weather is even hotter, and the college entrance examination is completed on time and in accordance with the prescribed time! In the afternoon, when you go up the mountain, you don't want to carry water and pour cigarettes, and you go to the field to run and jump, so you should go to the wind and exercise your body with a combination of work and rest. Qi Jingtao glared at the poor sister without pity, and lifted a fruit bowl from the table next to her and handed it to her.