Why do jujube farmers cut down jujube trees? Market cultivation needs to be speeded up.

Not long ago, a snow brought a chill to Luliang Mountain. The jujube farmers who live in the mountains, looking at the jujube trees, can't help shaking their heads: these jujube trees, which gave them hope of getting rich more than a decade ago, now let them down.

No one harvests dates, some people cut down trees.

Wang Dezhong, a villager from Yujiayao Village, Qianshan Township, Shilou County, planted 20 mu of wooden dates in 2015, with a harvest of 400 jin per mu, which was better than the harvest in previous years, but he was not happy. "I thought the dates would be sold at a good price, but it was in mid-to-late December, and not even a jujube collector came. The jujubes planted have not been sold at all. " He said helplessly.

Aunt Zhang, who is choosing dates in her own yard, said that two days ago, someone came into the village to collect rotten dates for 10 cents per jin, but they had no choice but to sell more than 3000 jin of rotten dates and some good dates as rotten dates. "if you don't sell them, there's nothing you can do about it. Dates are piled here, and they have to rot every day, and now more than half of them are rotten."

Shilou has a jujube forest of 271700 mu, with a normal annual jujube output of 60 million jin and an output value of 90 million yuan. It is a big jujube county in Shanxi Province, and red jujube was once a hope for farmers to shake off poverty and become rich. A grass-roots cadre in the county said: "in recent years, it rains as soon as the jujube is red, and when it rains, the fruit will crack. It is good for the jujube in the county to be able to harvest three or four." In 2014, the output of Shilou red jujube was reduced by as much as 90%. Years of serious fruit cracking have made some jujube farmers lose confidence in managing and protecting jujube trees, and the lack of a bumper harvest this year has further affected the enthusiasm of jujube farmers.

Li Huaiyi, who lives in Liu Village, Yili Town, Shilou County, is chopping down trees with an axe in the jujube forest. "the dates laid down can't be sold, and the money for selling dates is not enough to hire people to beat them. What's the use of planting them? we won't grow dates in the coming year." He said in low spirits.

The popularization of science and technology still needs to be deeply connected with the earth.

In a jujube forest in Hehe Township, Shilou County, several jujube farmers are painting jujube trees white. To the surprise of experts, jujube farmers only painted part of the trunk white, but turned a blind eye to some key parts of the branches that needed to kill pests. "now many jujube farmers do not know that the function of white painting in winter is to prevent frost, kill insects and kill bacteria." Li Dengke, a researcher at the Shanxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said that he had asked local jujube farmers, and the vast majority of them mistakenly thought that whitening was just for beauty.

Some jujube farmers also know nothing about common diseases such as jujube mad disease. Asked if there were any technicians to train them in professional management and care, a jujube farmer said with a wry smile, "they come to the village to give lectures, sometimes they come and sometimes they don't come, and the actual effect is mediocre." I'm 53 years old, and it's hard to learn skills now. "

Grass-roots cadres and jujube farmers said that at present, there is a lack of continuity and systematicness in technology going to the countryside, which makes it impossible for jujube farmers to truly master management and protection technology comprehensively and effectively. When some technicians went to the countryside for training, they found that some jujube farmers did not even understand some of the most basic management and protection knowledge, and each time they could only teach the most simple things from scratch. Dr. he Runping of the Shanxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences, who has been engaged in technology to the countryside, said that he wanted to be more approachable, but he always felt at a loss as to what to do in the face of jujube farmers with zero technical foundation.

Li Jie, director of the Fruit Tree Research Institute of the Shanxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said that to deal with technical problems such as fruit cracking and market fluctuations, and to guide jujube farmers to restore confidence, efforts need to be made to accurately locate characteristic varieties and build regional characteristic brands. Shanxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences has selected varieties with strong comprehensive characters and fruit cracking resistance in Luliang area, which should be popularized. Jujube farmers should also optimize the planting model, master the comprehensive agricultural compound management model, develop the economy under the forest, improve the fruit cracking resistance of jujube, and achieve high yield of jujube and food crops at the same time.

Market cultivation needs to be speeded up.

In 2015, the Shilou County government took measures to explore the "three-three system" of the jujube industry, that is, picking and distribution in three stages in different maturity periods. At the same time, it is proposed that for every 1 jin of green dates or fresh dates recovered from jujube farmers, the government will subsidize 20 cents. "the simultaneous development of these two ways is a beneficial attempt to reduce the marketing risk of traditional dried jujube and the risk of traditional fruit cracking." Chen Jianlin, deputy magistrate of Shilou County, said: however, the effect of these explorations remains to be further observed, and enterprises should be further stimulated and the main role of the market should be brought into full play.

Shude jujube industry is a large professional leading enterprise of red jujube in Shilou County. During the "Singles Day" period in 2015, the brand red jujube achieved good results in e-commerce sales. However, Xue Jinrong, the head of the enterprise, still frowned. He said that the company's product "jujube walnut" is too easy to imitate, and the profit margin will become smaller and smaller in the future.

Li Jie said: "leading enterprises should adjust measures to local conditions, use Shilou wooden jujube as a high-quality processing raw material, and focus on characteristic deep processing." Only by truly opening up the whole industry chain of science and technology and the market, and realizing the connection of upstream planting and downstream marketing, can jujube trees really become the 'rich trees' of jujube farmers. " Only with the support of agricultural technology and the integration of market resources, can the confidence of jujube farmers be restored.