BEIJING, April 16 (Xinhua) -- As tea in Diyiming Ecological Tea Garden recently entered its harvest season, tea farmers have been busy picking tea leaves for further production.
The tea garden, located at Daguozhuang Village, Mengzhuang Town, Zaozhuang City in east China's Shandong Province, has created new mode to propel rural prosperity where the tea garden pays land rent at market price to local farmers each year and offers plenty of job opportunities.
Targeting at local characteristic agricultural development, in addition to the tea garden, the town has made great efforts in developing other agricultural parks, including strawberry varieties research center, agriculture and tourism integration park, herbal medicine park, and chicken breeding park. The town has also mobilized related parties, creating various development models, such as village-enterprise joint venture, "common prosperity company" and rural partners.
Thanks to all these efforts, in 2023, the collective income of all five administrative villages in the town exceeded 200,000 yuan (about 27629 U.S. dollars) and that of one of the villages exceeded 500,000 yuan.
There are 48 new agricultural business entities in the town, with an annual output value of 280 million yuan. The town's annual output of eight enterprises above the designated size totaled 340 million yuan.
In 2023, 75 enterprises in the area and surrounding areas created more than 3,500 jobs. Local people saw their income up 40,000 yuan annually, and residents' per capita disposable income stood at 32,820 yuan, 57 percentage points higher than the average level of Zaozhuang City.
(Edited by Li Shimeng with Xinhua Silk Road, lishimeng@xinhua.org)