The Rich Road from Pepper to kiwifruit in Wujia Village, Zhaogong Town, Fufeng County

The abundance of Rain Water this year has led to a large area of wheat lodging in Fufeng County, and Wujia Village, which has a population of more than 2000, is no exception.

"Wheat loses, and the yield is much lower than in previous years!" 72-year-old Ma Xiping regretfully told the China Business Daily reporter. In spite of this, Ma Xiping believes that this does not have much impact on Wujiacun, because Wujiacun is now moving away from the model of relying on a single traditional agriculture to increase income. Apples and seedlings have become the leading industries in the village, and the benefits of kiwifruit cultivation are also beginning to bear fruit. Sun Hongru, secretary of the party branch of Wujia Village, said that traditional grain cultivation in Wujia Village is becoming a "sideline" on the edge.

Huashang Daily reporter in the village research learned that, in fact, since the "production package", the farmers in this village have been repeatedly tossing about the topic of increasing income and getting rich. From the earliest efforts to increase grain production, to later become a famous local "pepper village", and then to every household planting apple trees, now seedlings and kiwifruit are also beginning to be recognized by farmers. Wujia Village's development process is actually a microcosm of China's rural areas.

The fluctuation of the price of chili peppers

Let the villagers feel the cruelty and stimulation of the market.

At the beginning of the "production package", the people of Wujia Village were preoccupied with how to double the grain output. After more than a decade, many villagers have found that although grain production has increased, the money is still very slow, and household income is always unable to go up.

Around 1991, the "wind of getting rich" of growing chili peppers blew to Wujiacun. At that time, the purchase price of a jin of wheat was less than 30 cents, while a jin of chili could be sold for 80 cents. So for a time, every household in Wujia Village planted chili peppers, more than 4,000 mu of land in the village, half of which were chili peppers. Unfortunately, the price of pepper was not very good in 1994, which hit many pepper farmers, which led to a decline in the planting area of pepper in the village the following year, but the price of pepper rose, even to 8 yuan per jin at one point. From 80 cents to 8 yuan, the people of Wujiacun first felt the cruelty and stimulation of the market.

In 1997, the pepper planting area in Wujia Village began to shrink greatly. The reason is that the market has been artificially damaged. Years later, many villagers admitted that the market was destroyed by the villagers themselves. Some villagers saw that the income of chili peppers was good, so the day before they sold chili peppers, they secretly poured water on chili peppers to increase their weight. This practice caused the merchants who collected chili peppers in the second year never to come to Wujiacun again. The people of Wujia Village ended up hastily by growing chili peppers to "get rich".

Apple is unsalable and developed

"the first person of e-commerce in Wujiacun"

Just before and after the end of chili planting, the call for villagers to plant apples went down to Wujia Village. Although Apple has become the main source of income for local people, it was very difficult to promote at that time. "Farmers have made a living by farming for thousands of years. Most people can't accept that they don't grow crops and grow apples all of a sudden." Bi Wanli, 59, recalled.

In order to encourage villagers to grow apples and to complete the tasks assigned by their superiors, village cadres came up with a crooked way to "get rid of responsibility"-- those who carry apple saplings home will each be rewarded with 100 yuan. The "crooked trick" was very effective, and some villagers began to move the saplings to their own homes.

Sun Hongru, a village cadre, later discovered that although the apple saplings had been pulled home, the villagers had not been able to plant them for a long time. After the information was fed back to Fufeng County, the government once again issued an incentive policy: the money for planting apple trees and digging holes could be subsidized by the government, the bamboo poles needed were given free of charge by the government, and the agricultural department sent technicians to the village for free guidance.

Encouraged by a number of preferential policies, some people in Wujiacun began to plant apple trees with the attitude of trying. Bi Wanli is one of those people who "eat crabs". Facts have proved that his choice is very correct, a few years later, his family 3 mu of apple the highest income reached 70,000 yuan. Also benefiting from growing apples is 65-year-old Bi Jianguo, whose gross income from apples reached more than 90,000 yuan in 2015. After selling apples that year, the first thing Bi Jianguo did was to ask some old buddies to go to Xi'an and buy himself a Buick. From the beginning, I didn't even dare to dream about walking tractors, but now I drive a car to pick up apples in the fields every day. Bi Jianguo feels like a dream. He said that he had made a rough statistics a few days ago that there were 528 families in Wujia Village, and nearly 60 families had bought cars at present. "it's basically driven by the apple industry. If it hadn't been for Apple, I wouldn't dare to think about today!"

In 2016, apples in Fufeng area were unsalable due to overproduction. Fruit growers are anxious about this, including the recording of the Wujia Village. Ma Huilu, 55, was the first villager in Wujia Village to build a two-story building. What he is most proud of is that there are three college students in his family, and his sister and two sons are all supported by him, and now they all work outside the home. After Apple was slow to sell, Ma Hui called his two sons working in Wuhan for help. After a discussion, the two brothers decided to open an "e-commerce" for their father online to help his father sell apples. Ma Huilu not only sold out all his apples within a month, but also sold out apples for Bi Xinjun, Ma Dongping and other neighbors. From then on, Ma Huilu was called "the first person of e-commerce in Wujia Village" by the villagers.

Seedlings have become the second largest industry in Wujia Village.

When it comes to the seedlings in Wujia Village, Wang Xiling, a 46-year-old woman who has been lifted out of poverty, is unable to get around.

Wang Xiling used to be a big pig farmer in the village and her economic conditions are very good. But a serious illness in 2011 not only cost her all her savings, but also owed 110000 yuan. In 2013, Wang Xiling was ready to make a comeback, but her husband died unexpectedly. The double disaster made life extremely difficult for Wang Xiling's family, who were considered to be poor families enjoying the minimum living standard.

After that, Wang Xiling also thought about planting apple trees, but she later chose seedlings. Because the apple cycle is too long, it will take at least five years from planting to hanging fruit, while the seedling cycle is relatively short, and more importantly, the seedling development in Wujiacun before 2013 is a blank. Wang Xiling borrowed money from relatives and friends to plant three and a half mu of white pine, cherry blossoms, five-pointed maple and other seedlings, and hired people to work, mainly as technical guidance. Three years later, in 2016, three and a half mu of seedlings helped her pay off her foreign debt, and the scale of seedling planting grew to 30 mu. In October 2016, Wang Xiling voluntarily submitted an application to the village committee to withdraw from the ranks of poor households. She also became the first villager in Zhaogong town to voluntarily apply for withdrawal from poor households.

Driven by Wang Xiling, the cultivation of seedlings in Wujia Village has grown to more than 30 households in just two years. Wang Xiling also led to help poor families Bi Xinjun and others build seedling gardens. Seedlings are currently becoming the second largest industry in Wujiacun.

Kiwifruit is becoming a new bright spot to increase income.

In addition to apples and seedlings, kiwifruit is also becoming a new income bright spot for Wujiacun people. Chen Guocui, 47, is a laid-off worker from an agricultural and forestry enterprise and the wife of Wu Jiacun. Four years ago, Chen Guocui, who returned to the village from the city, took a fancy to a piece of collective land in the village, so he contracted over and planted kiwifruit after renovation.

The news that Chen Guocui had planted kiwifruit caused a great disturbance in Wujia Village. Many villagers were not optimistic about the industry. They thought that kiwifruit could not be planted north of the Weihe River. Chen Guocui ignored these, she borrowed from relatives and friends, loans from the bank, after more than three years of efforts, and finally made 30 mu of kiwifruit orchard.

In 2016, Chen Guocui's kiwifruit orchard was harvested in the first year. 30 mu of kiwifruit was robbed by merchants in less than half a month, with an income of more than 300000 yuan. The villagers of Wujia Village were stunned! In the same way of farming, the income of one mu of apples is equivalent to 10 mu of wheat, while the income of one mu of kiwifruit is even higher than that of apples.