Solidly carry out thematic education | Funing County: Revitalize the local specialty of star anise to create a new engine for wealth.

Star anise is a traditional industry for increasing income and wealth for the people of Funing County. The county currently has a star anise planting area of 692,000 acres, with an annual fresh fruit output of 200,000 tons and a production value of 2.22 billion yuan. In recent years, Funing County has taken star anise as an important tool for rural revitalization and strengthening the economy, through planning guidance, upgrading the industrial chain, and connecting interests, refining the 'local specialty' narrative, and turning star anise into a 'tree of wealth' and 'money tree', paving a new path for the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries to benefit farmers.

Draw a blueprint and stick to it.

Funing County has a long history of star anise cultivation, but in earlier years, it faced the awkward situation of generations planting star anise without deep processing enterprises, leading to unstable income for the people.

To break the bottleneck in the development of the star anise industry, Funing County established a leadership group and a special work team in 2022, designating two department-level officials to be responsible for the organization, guidance, and management coordination of star anise industry planning and development. Star anise was identified as a characteristic advantageous industry and a leading industry for the development of traditional Chinese medicine. The industrial development plan was revised according to the 'one core, two zones, three centers' industrial layout, and efforts were made to promote the development of the star anise industry. At the same time, Yunnan Zhongmu Agricultural and Forestry Development Co., Ltd. was successfully introduced to settle in the industrial park, investing 250 million yuan to implement an integrated project for star anise planting and processing, product testing, multifunctional trading, warehousing logistics, and cultural display, establishing a seedling base and standardized ecological planting demonstration plots. Through the leading enterprises, the star anise industry successfully transitioned from 'small, scattered, and weak' to 'large, excellent, and strong'.

Optimize policy services to strengthen the foundation.

In recent years, Funing County has actively carried out disease prevention and control, technical services, and research and formulation of incentive measures around the goals of maintaining volume, increasing yield, and adding new volume, vigorously promoting the efficient development of the star anise industry.

Maintain volume. Actively establish cooperative relationships with research institutions such as the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences, Southwest Forestry University, and the Provincial Academy of Forestry Sciences, and jointly establish an expert workstation with Academician Jiang Jianchun from the Chinese Academy of Forestry Sciences to conduct technical research on variety breeding and pest control, achieving three technical results through experiments, forming a set of star anise planting management and pest control techniques for promotion and application.

Increase yield. Fully leverage the role of experts and technology projects, strengthen the promotion of good variety breeding, transforming 'farmer breeding' into 'expert breeding', improving the yield and quality of star anise from the source. Since the beginning of this year, a total of 11 projects have been coordinated to secure 27.53 million yuan in funding, with technical promotion demonstrations conducted over 23,500 acres in the main star anise production areas, and 100 training sessions held for 9,360 participants, encouraging farmers to independently enhance the quality and efficiency of star anise on over 200,000 acres. The popularization rate of star anise science and technology has reached 90%, and the average yield per acre has increased to 500 kilograms.

Add new volume. Research and formulate eight development measures to strengthen the interest connection mechanism, allocating no less than 20% of the annual financial support for rural revitalization to the development of the star anise industry, focusing on rewarding towns, village collective economic companies, cooperatives, leading farmers, and star anise leading enterprises that establish interest connection mechanisms or connect farmers to farmers, enhancing the base, standardization, and organization level of the star anise industry. The plan is to gradually expand the star anise planting area to over 1 million acres in about five years.

Strengthen interest connection to stabilize income.

'Star anise is a money tree, planted for a year, it brings wealth for a hundred years.' How can characteristic resources be transformed into wealth resources to better assist farmers in increasing income?

Funing County drives the development of the star anise industry through party building, implementing demonstration projects that connect farmers to farmers in Anlan Village, Xinhua Town, and Xinzai Village, Lida Town. Through the mobilization of party organizations, demonstration by party members, and the driving force of cooperatives, a development model of 'Party organization + company (cooperative) + village committee (village group) + farmers' has been formed. A joint party building entity for the star anise industry has been established among government, banks, and enterprises, launching the 'star anise loan' product without collateral, supporting loans of 8.36 million yuan to help cooperatives, small and micro enterprises, and farmers develop production.

At the same time, continuously improve the interest chain, innovatively implement the 'four five-cent' interest connection mechanism for the star anise industry, where the company and cooperatives sign purchase cooperation agreements, and the village committee and village groups mobilize farmers. The cooperative purchases star anise from farmers on behalf of the company, which then returns 20 cents per pound to the cooperative based on the actual purchase amount. The cooperative distributes profits at a ratio of 5 cents each for farmers, cooperatives, village groups, and village committees, achieving a 'four-win' situation of increasing farmers' income, expanding the scale of cooperatives, strengthening village collective economies, and ensuring company profits. This year, the enterprise purchased over 10,000 tons of fresh star anise, generating over 4 million yuan in profit returns, promoting an increase of 2 million yuan in collective economic income for village groups and over 1 million yuan for the people.

In addition, Funing County emphasizes the extension of the entire star anise industry chain, relying on the planning and construction of the 'Xinhua Yapai - Lida Napu Star Anise Ten-Mile Corridor', accelerating the integration of planting, processing, and trading, as well as the establishment of good seedling bases. It deepens the research and technological innovation of surrounding products such as 'a bottle of oil, a jar of wine, a table of dishes, a bar of soap, and a set of cosmetics', and carries out in-depth development of star anise culture and brand image shaping, ancient tree protection and utilization. It also supports the construction of characteristic homestays, handmade experience workshops, and star anise cultural exhibition halls along the ten-mile corridor, developing tourism products such as ecological sightseeing, leisure health, and immersive experiences, leading the star anise industry to transform into an industrial cluster development model that integrates the tertiary industry, promoting the deep integration of the first, second, and third industries in the star anise industry.