Zhuanglang terraces in Gansu Province: chasing a well-off Society with "Golden Fruit"

When it comes to Zhuanglang County in Pingliang City, Gansu Province, people always associate terraced fields. In the famine years of the past, Zhuang Lang's children built millions of acres of terraced fields. By virtue of the high-yield advantages of terraced fields, the common people were able to have enough food and clothing. Today's Zhuanglang, layers of terraced fields are full of red apples, let people see the new hope of getting rid of poverty and becoming rich.

Farmers own 1 mu of apple orchards per capita

Zhuang Lang village has a joke: "If Zhuang Lang loess sold into money, the common people do not worry about wealth." This sentence from the side of Zhuanglang said the lack of underground resources. Zhuanglang terraced fields can only produce grain, but cannot dig out "golden lumps". After Zhuanglang County was classified by the Ministry of Agriculture as one of the few apple dominant production areas in China, it became possible to plant "cash cow" in Zhuanglang terraced fields.

In the new round of poverty alleviation actions, Zhuanglang County Party Committee and County Government firmly grasped the location advantages of apple producing areas in China, established the strategy of strengthening counties in apple industry, made high-standard planning, took the development of apple-led industry as the main direction of precise poverty alleviation, and outlined the layout of apple industrial base: Apple bases will be developed along the river valleys of Hulu River, Shuiluo River and Zhuanglang River, and then extended to the river platforms on both banks, gradually "climbing up" terraces, striving to fully cover the apple suitable areas. Establish the goal of apple-led industrial base development: let farmers in the whole county own 1 mu apple orchard per capita. After all farmers enter the peak fruit period by 2020, the per capita income of apple industry alone of farmers in the whole county will reach ten thousand yuan, so that farmers can hold apples and pursue a well-off dream.

In the past, Zhuanglang County had only Yangchuan Town and Wanquan Town, two old apple-producing towns. Now, along the gourd river upstream, apple orchard from Yangchuan town continues to extend, through Dazhuang Township, Wolong Town, Nanhu Town, until Zhaodun Township. Along the Shuiluo River upstream, the apple orchard continued to extend from Wanquan Town, through Zhudian Town, Shuiluo Town, Nanping Township, until Liangyi Township. At present, Apple Base has developed into 14 towns and villages in the county.

Plant a tree, survive a tree. Every spring is the driest season of the year in Zhuanglang County. In order to ensure the survival of seedlings, the county forest and fruit department constantly explores "survival" measures: before planting, soak the roots of seedlings with rooting powder; after planting, cover the seedlings with moisture bags. These two measures promote the survival rate of apple seedlings in the county to 98%. At present, the county apple base 650,000 mu, farmers per capita have 1 mu apple orchard, apple base basically covers the county suitable planting area. Every year, the county integrates 20 million yuan of funds for poverty alleviation and forestry projects, subsidizes seedlings, agricultural film and fertilizer for farmers, and supports farmers to build orchard bases.

Xu Yi, secretary of the county party committee, said: "We firmly seize the great opportunity of precise poverty alleviation, make great efforts in the standardized management of apple industry, implement the 'Five Three' Project, build 3000 mu EU standard demonstration park, 30,000 mu national standard demonstration park and 300,000 mu municipal standard demonstration park in 3 years, train and issue certificates to 30,000 county-level fruit experts, and improve the standardized management level of orchards."

"Apple team" did what it looked like

Gaoshaoping is a mountain apple base in Wanquan Town. There are 4000 mu apple orchards distributed in the area. About 700 farmers work fruit in the base. There is a 4 km long operation road, which has been hardened into cement pavement. Fruit farmer Gao Xiuchuan said: "This road hardened, rainy days driving agricultural vehicles no longer skid, fruit is a lot more convenient."

Song Shuhong, the county magistrate, said: "We take the apple-led industry as the main direction of precise poverty alleviation to support development. Where the apple industry develops, the projects and policies will be followed up, and the supporting facilities such as roads, water, electricity and gas will be continuously optimized to support the apple industry to help agriculture become rich and well-off."

Around the transportation problem of apple industry in the county, the cement hardened road project connecting villages has been implemented, and the road patency rate of the whole county reaches 67%. Centering on the problem of orchard irrigation water, small-scale farmland water conservancy construction project was implemented, and trickling clean water was introduced into orchard, thus solving the problem of "the last kilometer" of orchard irrigation in valley and terrace area. Around the problem of insufficient power in the apple industry area, a photovoltaic power generation project with a total investment of 350 million yuan has been built. Around the problem of reducing hail damage to apples, artificial hail prevention stations will be built step by step, and four hail disaster defense lines will be formed in the whole county to reduce hail damage as much as possible. Around the problem of orchard agricultural waste treatment, biogas digester was built in the orchard, branches and leaves were backfilled into biogas digester, and biogas residue and biogas slurry were used as fertilizer to produce apples, forming a green ecological agricultural production mode of "apple + biogas".

To make apple industry play the scale benefit of helping agriculture and increasing income, farmers must be guided to carefully manage orchards. To let farmers voluntarily manage orchards, we must set up a model for them to see and touch apples to increase their income and become rich. County in Zhudian Town Sanhe Village to explore the village team members demonstration apple "guide field" practice. Liu Yuchang, the branch secretary of Sanhe Village, is an old man who has long tasted the fruits. The village also elected Li Wenbin, a large orchard with a planting scale of 10 mu, Liu Xiaoming and Zhu Jiansheng, each with 20 mu, to the village team to form an "apple team." The "apple team" has done a good job. Every meeting must talk about apples, and calculate the comparison account between fruit and grain for villagers; every year when apples are opened and listed, villagers are organized to witness the lively scene of customers buying apples. At present, the average annual apple income of members of the "Apple team" is more than 70,000 yuan.

Villages look at villages, households look at households, farmers look at cadres. The demonstration of "Apple Team" led the villagers to move the idea of careful fruit. Those villagers in the village who thought they could earn money quickly put down their earthen knives, grabbed scissors and went into the orchard. At present, the orchard area of the village has developed to 2810 mu, with 1 mu orchard per capita, including 1200 mu hanging fruit garden. There are 14 orchard towns in the county with fruit hanging area of 250,000 mu.

Standardized production is called "Zhuang Langhong"

Last autumn, the wholesale price of red Fuji apples in Zhuanglang County, 75 mm in diameter, was up to 5.5 yuan per catty. "Zhuanglanghong" Fuji apple was originally introduced from Qixia City, which is known as "the first apple city in China," but the price per catty is about 1.8 yuan higher than that of Qixia City, showing that "green is better than blue".

In the development of apple leading industry, Zhuanglang County popularized apple standardized production technology, and established and improved apple production technology popularization system with fruit industry center in county, fruit industry station in township (town) and fruit technician in village. Carry out the administrative and technical "double-package" responsibility system for apple industry development. Each county cadre shall grasp one orchard township. The main leaders of the township shall set up demonstration points. The technical cadres of the county fruit industry department shall provide technical support at the front line of orchard, guide the development of demonstration apple orchards such as export foreign exchange gardens, organic apple orchards and green food orchards, and demonstrate and popularize standardized apple management technologies such as sunshine crown and single fruit management.

County fruit industry center technical cadre Wang Xuanqiang said, Zhuanglang County promotion of sunshine crown convenient fruit tree lighting, spindle tree convenient fruit tree ventilation, but also conducive to fruit farmers field operations. In Pingliang City garden competition activities, Zhuanglang County apple nursery management level comprehensive rated as the city's second. The judges said that the management standard of apple nursery in Zhuanglang County, especially the selected spindle tree shape, is conducive to the production of high-quality apples.

Industry experts also praised Zhuanglang's apple cultivation model. Li Bingzhi, a well-known apple expert in China, said after visiting the Beichuan Apple Standardization Technology Demonstration Park in Wanquan Town: "The most advanced cultivation model in the world has become a reality here, so we should vigorously summarize and promote it."

Spreading spindle tree and applying farm manure, apple production embarked on the road of ecological agriculture. The county adopts the ecological agricultural production mode of "fruit + livestock", and the farm manure produced by animal husbandry is deeply applied to fruit trees as base fertilizer, which improves the quality of fruit. Wang Xuanqiang said: "The application of chemical fertilizer and the application of farm manure, fruit quality is very different." Apples produced from farm manure taste sweet and crisp."