Her Cultivation Diary

Chapter 92: 92. Contracting Barren Hill_1

Zu Jun was truly capable of winning trust in the countryside alone, his words were very persuasive:

“I figure with your Chestnut Garden and this mountain behind it, along with your tea plantation, all in all it would add up to about ten acres, right?”

“There’s quite a bit of land actually, and it’s nice and concentrated, totaling a little over fourteen acres, but less than fifteen.”

“But the mountain behind your property, right across the road, that’s a good twenty acres of hillside land. If you could lease that and join it up with your own, then the entire mountain ridge at the back would all be yours!”

Wow!

Boy, after this spiel, both Wu Lan and Song Sancheng got it: they realized he was trying to entice them into leasing more land because their farming was decent?

Wu Lan was not pleased:

“You, this little secretary, what’s the meaning of this? Don’t you ever think about us farmers. My kid has only been farming for a few months, hasn’t even made a noticeable difference yet, and here you are coaxing us into leasing more land.”

“What if we end up in a loss? The whole family would be left with nothing to do but to feel the northwest wind on our faces!”

Zu Jun thought to himself, with your tea selling at ten yuan a jin, I’m sure you definitely won’t incur a loss!

In fact, Zu Jun didn’t initially plan to bring up the mountain leasing now, she intended to wait at least until next year, when they’d made a bit of a name on this side.

However, after taking a sip of tea, she felt a surge of confidence, and an idea struck her.

So, she gently and persuasively said, “Auntie, don’t rush. Listen to me first.”

This time, Zu Jun provided a lot more detailed data:

“Under our rural support plan, there are indeed other solid subsidies.”

“I hear Song Tan graduated less than two years ago, right?”

Song Tan nodded.

Indeed, it was half a year short.

Zu Jun then smiled and said, “Uni graduates returning to their hometown to start a business within two years can receive a one-time subsidy of 5000 yuan six months after declaring a family farm.”

Yeah!

Wu Lan instantly became happy.

Song Sancheng also smiled widely, “University was indeed worth it.”

Zu Jun adopted a strategy of dropping a less appealing proposal first, and then step by step discussing the benefits.

“There’s more. According to policy, for combined land operation of over twenty acres, we get a subsidy of 300 yuan per acre. It’s an annual subsidy for three consecutive years.”

“For those planting fruit trees on the mountain, as long as there are more than eighty trees per acre, and the trees are all over three years old, it’s also 300.”

“Auntie, does that sound profitable to you?”

“This is why I mentioned leasing the mountain earlier; that land is owned by the village, with some fields at the bottom. If we added those, not only would your planting area be more complete, but both the mountain land and the fields would get this subsidy!”

“Over ten thousand a year, how could it not work?”

“Furthermore, for those planting vegetables in their fields, each acre gets a subsidy of 200. If it’s a year-round greenhouse, then the subsidy is 500.”

“If you install things like surveillance cameras, automatic irrigation, stuff like that, throughout the whole area, you get a one-time subsidy of twenty thousand.”

With each number she mentioned, Wu Lan and Song Sancheng’s hearts thumped, beating vigorously with joy and surging passion.

And it didn’t stop there.

Zu Jun then looked at the chickens and ducks in the yard, “You also raise pigs, chickens, and ducks, right? This year’s policy is a ten percent subsidy for infrastructure, but I think your scale doesn’t quite meet the standard yet, and you’ve probably not spent much on infrastructure, so I guess you can’t apply for it.”

But this was already a pleasant surprise.

Though she hadn’t worked out how much exactly she could get, Wu Lan’s head was already spinning. Looking at the flock of chickens and ducks, she now deeply regretted not building a chicken coop earlier!

The mentality that one has lost out if they don’t take advantage of such “cheap gains” was evidently etched into her soul.

Zu Jun looked at Song Tan again, his voice tempting:

“I heard from the villagers that you’ve also planted Golden Sakura in your Chestnut Garden, is that true? This counts as intercropping medicinal herbs, and you’ll receive a one-time subsidy of an additional $2,000.”

“However, these subsidies have a cap. A family farm can receive a maximum subsidy of $200,000.”

“Auntie, I’m sincerely considering our family’s interests, otherwise I would have planned to bring this up next year.”

“You also know that our finances are limited, so it’s first come, first served when it comes to applications and payments.”

“There is only so much funding, but there are so many people in within miles, and if I were to inform you too late, and the finances run out, this might get delayed…”

He didn’t finish his sentence, but Wu Lan was already becoming restless.

Now thinking about the village secretary’s earlier suggestion, she couldn’t help feeling guilty—this was a way to bring money home to their family!

She could only pick up the teapot again: “Come on, let me top up your water, we have some good tea here, you should drink a few more cups.”

Song Sancheng also hadn’t expected that the subsidies for farming were so abundant now. Gosh, it was like a pleasant surprise, as if finding free money!

Only Song Tan was still being rational: “How much is the leasing fee for those twenty acres of mountain land plus the fields below?”

Zu Jun laughed: “You don’t need to worry about that, our Yunqiao Town isn’t some popular rural area, the leasing cost hasn’t gone up in years. That’s why I already inquired on your behalf at the town meeting last time: $150 per acre, paid for twenty years at first, and then the rest all at once after twenty years.”

“According to national regulations, we cannot reclaim the land during the lease. However, correspondingly, the lessee’s whole family cannot change to a non-agricultural hukou (household registration), otherwise, we have the right to take back the land.”

“Additionally, your household registration is still a collective one, right? If you were to move back, we could immediately accept it here.”

“As someone from the village taking on the lease, we can still extend the maximum limit to seventy years.”

After saying this, she added: “It was hard to get approval for this before, but now it’s possible, thanks to the recently introduced policies. All of these are for revitalizing the countryside.”

She sized up Song Tan’s expression and felt increasingly confident of success, so she struck while the iron was hot:

“The fields below, when combined, also total more than seven acres, and there is also a pond in the hollow of the hill within the leasing scope, which belongs to the public ponds of our village.”

“The fields are priced at $300 per acre, and the pond at about three acres, for $600 per acre.”

“How about that, the price is absolutely fair, isn’t it!”

“These prices really haven’t increased a cent, they are still the same as ten years ago.”

Song Tan did a mental calculation—

The large tract of forest on the back mountain she saw had been unattended by the villagers, and didn’t have any large trees.

It was mostly shrubs and wild grass, making it simple to tidy up.

But now it was almost April, and if they wanted to apply for subsidies quickly, they’d need to hurry in cleaning up the mountain land, decide what to plant, and get planting as soon as possible.

Time was a bit tight.

Meanwhile, Wu Lan and Song Sancheng hastily filtered the honey and, holding a calculator, confusedly figured out how much they could subsidize.

They hadn’t come to any concrete conclusion, but they could roughly estimate: if they agreed to lease the uncultivated land on the back hill, they could very well secure a subsidy of thirty to forty thousand dollars a year!

How much was the leasing fee for twenty years?

Twenty acres of mountain land, at $150 per acre.

Seven acres of field, at $300 per acre.

Three acres of pond, at $600 per acre.

Calculating it out, the initial twenty years of lease fees totaled just under $140,000.

But three years of subsidies would cover more than half of that.

At this moment, even the frugal Song Sancheng and Wu Lan couldn’t help but waver in their hearts.