Xin'an, Henan Province: Cherry trees have become farmers'"cash cow"

These days, Wang Wansong, a cherry grower in Dushu Village, Wutou Town, Xin'an County, Luoyang City, Henan Province, is very busy. A large number of listed cherries attract many foreign tourists. He said that on the most day, more than 200 people came to his picking garden, the farm music run by himself was "overcrowded", and online sales also set a record of 650 kilograms a day.

Cherry is one of the agricultural pillar industries in Xin'an County. after more than 20 years of development, the three towns of Cijian, Wutou and Cangtou, which are the most concentrated cherry planting in Xin'an County, have formed a cherry valley with an area of 40,000 mu. In 2007, it was named as "ten thousand mu pollution-free cherry base" by the provincial government.

It is precisely because of the potential ecological value of cherries that Wang Wansong, who runs a home appliance business in the urban area, contracted more than 200 mu of cherry forest in Dushu, Matou and other villages in 2012, and later planted 70 mu of strawberries. In 2014, he opened a farm hotel again. Last year, the village-level service of e-commerce was set up in his planting base, and cherries were sold all over the country on the "Internet Express".

Xin'an County, located in the hilly and mountainous areas of western Henan Province, is one of the main birthplaces of Heluo culture. Although the tourism and cultural resources are rich, the vast rural areas lack of projects and have few ways to get rich due to the troubles of mountains. In recent years, the county has successfully created the Daimeishan World Geopark and the Hanghangu pass World Cultural Heritage. In order to organically combine tourism with enriching the people, the county has invested money to upgrade and transform more than 20 kilometers of roads and villages connecting Cijian, Wutou and Cangtou, centering on the goal of creating a "Xin'an Cherry Valley West Route Tour". It has created more than ten new tourism highlights, such as 3D Cherry Valley Gallery, Tianxing Ecological Park, Linshan Valley Resort and so on. And successfully held a series of rural tourism activities, such as cycling race, Cherry Festival, Landscape Peony Festival and so on. On this basis, relying on the traditional cherry industry, provincial agricultural science and technology parks have been cultivated, 13 agricultural professional cooperatives have been formed, and more than 50 characteristic picking gardens have been developed.

At present, cherry has become a new tourism symbol in the county, and it is also a "cash cow" for farmers to shake off poverty and become rich. It is understood that the output of cherries in this county has exceeded 40 million jin this year. Calculated according to the current average price of 8 yuan per jin, it is estimated that it will directly increase farmers' income by 320 million yuan.