Guizhou's mountains and waters are endowed with remarkable natural beauty and rich resources.
Data shows that Guizhou's Tea garden area has expanded from 5.24 million mu in 2014 to over 7 million mu in 2023, ranking it among the top in the country; the province's tea industry's comprehensive output value also jumped from 27 billion yuan to 63 billion yuan during the same period.
The Multi-Color Guizhou Network specially launches the column “[Visit Guizhou's Tea],” starting from Guizhou's tea industry chain, interviewing tea farmers, tea makers, scientific researchers, teahouse owners, and foreign tea seekers, reflecting how Guizhou's excellent ecology fosters clean tea and its path of high-quality industrial development.
“Qian Tea No.1” took nearly 16 years to develop from a superior strain to a new variety. In April 2019, it was registered by the Ministry of Agriculture as a non-principal crop variety, allowing for its promotion.
Its primary developer is Dr. Chen Zhengwu, researcher at the Guizhou Tea Research Institute and leader of the tea plant resource breeding discipline.
On August 5th, Dr. Chen Zhengwu told reporters that since its promotion in 2019, “Qian Tea No.1” has been introduced to areas such as Daozhen Autonomous County, Sinan County, Yanhe Autonomous County, and Baihua Township in Guanshanhu District, Guiyang City, with a total cultivation area of over 40,000 mu. It has also been introduced for small-scale demonstration in provinces like Sichuan, Chongqing, Hubei, Guangdong, and Zhejiang.
This is an impressive achievement.
“Only with good quality and high yield can there be market prospects for promotion,” said Dr. Chen Zhengwu. “Qian Tea No.1” was selected from a superior strain of “Meitan Moss Tea” in 2003 through vegetative propagation.
It is a variety characterized by strong adaptability, excellent quality, high yield, and efficient picking, producing green tea with floral aroma and fresh, smooth taste. It can achieve rapid plantation establishment within one year, picking within two years, and cost recovery within three years.
“Qian Tea No.1” cultivated in Xingren City
In addition to being made into green tea, “Qian Tea No.1” can also be processed into black tea and yellow tea, making it an outstanding tea variety. Under the same cultivation conditions, its yield is 25% higher than that of Fuding Dahao white tea. Spring shoots contain 45.1% water-soluble extractives, 4.2% free amino acids, 17.3% polyphenols, and 3.8% caffeine, producing high-quality tea.
Compared to other tea varieties, “Qian Tea No.1” is drought and cold-resistant, with robust seedlings and a high survival rate, reducing management costs. Its survival rate in Guizhou is above 99%. This is why it has broad market prospects.
Selecting and developing a variety from dozens of materials over 16 years is no easy task.
Every spring, Dr. Chen Zhengwu spends a month frying and carefully tasting these tea varieties before deciding whether to focus on their development. He bags the tea samples and assigns them numbers, each representing a selected material.
Dr. Chen Zhengwu (second from right) introduces “Qian Tea No.1” at a plantation in Meitan County
“We collect the materials and grow them in our resource bank, observing their agricultural traits and studying their biological characteristics. Only those with potential value are propagated. After propagation, systematic variety comparison trials are conducted, followed by selection of the best,” explained Dr. Chen Zhengwu.
In 1993, after graduating from the Crop Science major at Guizhou Agricultural College, Dr. Chen Zhengwu joined the Guizhou Tea Research Institute (now the Guizhou Tea Research Institute). For thirty-one years, he has focused on tea plant resources and new variety development, leading the cultivation of four national tea varieties and obtaining five new plant variety rights.
Since its establishment, the Guizhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences' Tea Research Institute has continuously conducted tea germplasm resource preservation work. Currently, the “Guizhou Tea Germplasm Resource Garden” holds the largest and most diverse collection of tea resources in the province, with a total of 3,263 domestic and international tea resources collected and preserved.
“Qian Tea No.1” is drought and cold-resistant, with robust seedlings and a high survival rate
In 2022, Xiaozhaiguan Village, Bandon Town, Ziyun Autonomous County planted 3,000 mu of “Qian Tea No.1.” Prior to this, attempts to cultivate honeysuckle and rapeseed in the village had failed. Later, the village planted tea under the leadership of a company, generating some income in 2023.
Reporters learned that Xiaozhaiguan Village adopted the “Qian Tea No.1 ‘123' Management Mode Rapid Plantation Integration Technology” explored by the Guizhou Tea Research Institute, achieving effects such as one-year picking, two-year cost recovery, and three-year high yield, breaking away from the traditional high-input, zero-output tea plantation management model and effectively reducing costs and increasing efficiency for the tea plantation.
Villagers picking tea for the company can harvest about 4 catties per day, earning more than 200 yuan. Seeing the benefits, all villagers support the cultivation of “Qian Tea No.1.”
In 2023 and 2024, “Qian Tea No.1” was consecutively included in the Top Ten Dominant Varieties of Agriculture in Guizhou Province.
“Next, my team and I will continue to increase our research efforts and constantly add more premium varieties to Guizhou's tea offerings,” Dr. Chen Zhengwu told reporters.
Reporter: Peng Dian, Multi-Color Guizhou Network