Only mulching but no sowing: b2b.cbd-china.com
On March 1st, the reporter went to one of the villages that the villagers had reported - the Koujiagou Village demonstration site in Shanyang County's potato demonstration area. Standing on the highway north of the demonstration site and looking out, nearly 200 acres of farmland could be seen. Some plots were covered with plastic mulch while others were empty land.
As soon as the reporter entered the village entrance, villagers gathered around, saying that their land had been mysteriously covered with plastic mulch a while ago. Not only was the plowed land covered, but unplowed corn stubble fields were also covered. However, strangely, nothing was sown. Moreover, these days, for some unknown reason, the plastic mulch was torn off again. Everyone said: [Isn't this just a waste?]
The village chief hired people to cover the land with plastic mulch: b2b.cbd-china.com
[Why are there cases where some empty lands have been covered with plastic mulch but not sown, then uncovered later? I don't know who did it or how many mu (Chinese unit of area) were involved.] Facing the reporter's questions, Jia Xiuliang, the village chief who took office last year, confidently said.
However, according to some villagers, this matter was done by the village cadres hiring people. Because from February 24th to 25th this year, the Shaanxi Provincial Department of Agriculture organized the [Shaanbei High Yield Creation Spring Work Field Meeting] held in Shanyang County. In order to cope with inspections from higher-level departments, the village cadres spent money to hire people to cover the vacant land with plastic mulch without sowing seeds.
Subsequently, the villagers' words were confirmed. In Yangjiagou Village, about four to five li (Chinese unit of distance) away from Koujiagou Village (now the second group of Koujiagou Village), the reporter met several women who participated in covering the demonstration site with plastic mulch at that time.
[I was called by a fellow villager named Lu Lianghong. He said he would pay me fifty yuan a day to help cover the land with plastic mulch, so without hesitation, I went. When I got to the field, I saw more than twenty people working there, most of them women. At that time, the village chief Jia Xiuliang and two men who looked like officials from somewhere else were directing the work on-site. I was curious, what were we doing? Why cover the bare land with plastic mulch without sowing seeds? After finishing almost all the vacant land, I still haven't received my payment.] A woman surnamed Zhang in her 60s said.
Relevant departments intervene in the investigation
After the local media exposed the fact that Koujiagou Village in Shanyang County falsified information at the high-yield creation demonstration site for potato planting to deal with inspections from higher-ups, it drew significant attention from the Shaanxi Provincial Department of Agriculture and the Shangluo City Agricultural Bureau. They immediately formed a joint investigation team to investigate the matter.
According to Ren Fuping, head of the investigation team and Director of the Crop Production Department of the Shaanxi Provincial Department of Agriculture, from March 1st to 2nd, the investigation team visited 23 households in 10 villages within the high-yield creation project area of Shanyang County's potatoes, and conducted detailed inquiries with town-level cadres and village cadres. They also inspected each plot in the planned area of the plastic mulch potato project in Group One of Koujiagou Village. It has now been found that Jia Xiuliang, the village chief of Koujiagou Village, privately hired 19 villagers to violate technical regulations and cover the land with plastic mulch along the highway to speed up progress and deal with inspections. It was verified that 13 plots covering 11.7 mu were covered with plastic mulch but not planted.