The little apple helps the poverty-stricken county embark on the "road to prosperity"

Apples in orchards in Jingning County. Photo taken by Zi Qing of Chinanews.com

Chinanews.com, Pingliang, September 22 / PRNewswire-Asianet /-- "Jingning apples look beautiful and taste good, so they don't have to worry about selling at all." Fruit grower Yang Daodao spoke of his "little apple" and was full of praise. While telling about his planting experience, he handed over the picked apples to the reporter to taste.

Don't underestimate this apple, but it has helped Jingning County, an extremely poor area, to embark on the "road to prosperity."

On September 21, the online media "Zhaogai" interview delegation came to Jingning County, Pingliang City, which belongs to Pingliang City, Gansu Province, west of Liupanshan and east of Huajialing. It is an important town on the middle line of the eastern section of the ancient Silk Road, known as "Pingliang West Gate". Due to the arid climate and the lack of agricultural technology, Jingning County is also one of the poverty-stricken areas in Liupanshan area and the key county in the national poverty alleviation and development work.

According to official data, farming is still the main livelihood of the people of Jingning. Jingning County has a total population of 487800, of which 449000 are in rural areas, accounting for more than 90%. In the view of fruit grower Yang Daodao, the rapid development of the apple industry has made the villagers taste a lot of benefits.

"the apple industry is the label of Jingning. It can not only grow its own products for export, but also open a harvest garden to increase its income. It can kill two birds with one stone." It has been 28 years since Yang Daodao started apple cultivation in 1989. Through continuous exploration, his apple cultivation techniques and planting scale have been considerable. "he has 6 mu of land growing apples, and in a year, his net income can reach 60,000 to 70,000 yuan. The family just bought a car."

Chinanews.com reporter noticed that Yang Daojia's orchard is a little different. The apples on the fruit trees are covered with small bags and the ground is covered with reflective film. What is this for?

"the small bag is a special planting technology of Jingning apple. After putting on the bag, it can also prevent insect pests, while the reflective film makes the apple color better and more beautiful." Yang Daodao said that when the technology was first promoted, the bags were all subsidized by the government, just to lighten the burden on fruit farmers and increase their enthusiasm for planting.

In fact, Jingning is already one of the dominant apple producing areas designated by the Ministry of Agriculture in China. After more than 30 years of continuous development, the total area of the orchard has reached 1.012 million mu, which is the first county of apple scale cultivation in the country. In 2015, the total fruit output was 680000 tons, with an output value of 2.5 billion yuan.

From the outside, the skin of Jingning Apple is a bit "matte", not bright and attractive, but it tastes very crisp. Walking among the fruit trees, the reporter found that some apples were affixed with stickers with the words "Merry Christmas" and "Whitehead forever".

Yang Daodao revealed that their little "business classics" are hidden here: "the words on the stickers are black, blocking the sun, and some of the words are lighter than other areas because of lack of light. Four or five days before picking, the effect can be achieved. Apples printed with blessing messages can be sold for 10 yuan each, while the price of ordinary apples ranges from 2 yuan to 4 yuan per jin. " (end)