Eco-friendly peach orchards E China’s Jiangsu province become money-spinner
By Shen
Lin, People’s Daily
“Our net income reached 300,000 yuan (about $42,394)
last year. These honey peach trees and autumn peach trees are ‘money trees’ to
us,” said orchardist Xue Jiacong while bagging fruit on peach trees in early
summer.
Xue, who lives in Siyang county of east China’s
Jiangsu province, is one of the farmers in Siyang county who have become rich
by running eco-friendly peach orchards.
In recent years, Siyang county has made great
efforts to tap into its well-established reputation as the “hometown of peaches”
and blazed a trail of green development for peach industry.
With a total of 60,000 mu
(4,000 hectares) of famous, special, and high-quality varieties of peach trees,
Siyang county saw its overall production value of peach industry reached one billion
yuan last year.
The industry has provided jobs for more than 12,000
local people, increasing income of local farmers by nearly 100 million yuan.
The eco-friendly planting methods
adopted by local orchardists are the key to Siyang’s success in making peach
trees money-spinners of the local people.
“Our peaches have never been sold at less than 20
yuan per kilogram,” said Hua Songqing, head of a peach production cooperative in
Nanliuji town, Siyang county.
“Check this drip irrigation system. It delivers
diluted biogas slurry directly from pig farm to the roots of peach trees drop
by drop. We use organic fertilizer and biopesticide. All the weeds are cut into
small pieces with grass chopper, and then ploughed into the fields to be used
as green manure,” Hua explained.
Peach association of Siyang county has promoted new peach
tree planting techniques
including
wide-row planting and pruning the longer branches off the
trees, according to Geng Xiaoyun, deputy
secretary of Communist
Party of China (CPC) Siyang county
committee.
With the help of the fruit tree research center of
Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Siyang county has built 20 standard
peach orchards and five standard peach tree planting bases, with more than 90
percent of these orchards and bases adopting eco-friendly planting methods,
Geng disclosed.
In an effort to win favor with consumers, all of the
peach production cooperatives in Siyang county have joined Jiangsu province’s traceability
platform for safety and quality of agricultural products.
When peaches come on the market, consumers can get
information about the whole growing process of the peaches by simply scanning
the QR code on the fruit with a mobile phone, said Wei Guo, deputy head of Siyang
county.
“The QR code on each peach brings higher selling
prices to the fruit, which has motivated more orchardists to adopt eco-friendly
planting methods,” Wei added.
Eco-friendly peach tree planting methods have
yielded fruitful results in Siyang county, where 33 peach production bases have
obtained the accreditation for healthy food.
Peaches produced in Siyang county have been
identified as agricultural products with geographical indications by China’s
Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, and have won 15 gold awards and 28
silver awards at national and provincial peach contests.
Besides selling peach, Siyang county has also made
its peach orchards become tourist attractions.
During this year’s International
Children’s Day, many tourists brought their children to Siyang
county’s Chengzi Lake resort, enjoying the view of peaches on the trees and
taking pictures in the peach park of the resort.
Based on its blooming peach industry, Siyang county
integrated tourism into agriculture, and established agricultural tourism bases
such as the peach park in Luji town, Tao Hua Yuan Ji peach production
cooperative in Nanliuji town, and the pear orchard in Aiyuan town, where the
ancient pear trees were reportedly planted in the Qing
Dynasty (1636-1912).
By developing programs featuring farming experience
as well as holding festivals and events including peach blossom festival, peach
contest, and peach picking festival, Siyang county attracts more than 100,000
person-times of tourists every year and enjoys more than 100 million yuan in
annual tourism revenue.
In Siyang county, peach blossoms are not only
money-making scenery, but can also be made into tea.
“The plucked flower buds and fallen peach blossoms
used to be tossed away for nothing, while now they are made into peach blossom
tea and sold for 2,000 yuan per kilogram,” said Zhang Jianzheng, head of a
peach production cooperative in Zhuangtan village, Nanliuji town, disclosing
that the cooperative sold its baked peach blossoms for 30,000 yuan this year.
To bring into full play of its peach orchards,
Siyang county knows clearly that deep processed peach products are just as
important as fresh peach.
“A case with six bottles of canned peach can be sold
for 90 yuan online. The prices of peach can rise by four to five times after it
is made into canned fruit,” remarked Liu Zhengjun, an orchardist in Aiyuan
village, who benefited from deep processing.
So far, Siyang county has developed mature systems
for deep processed peach products, including peach blossom tea, peach blossom
liquor, peach blossom honey, and peach gum. The output value of these products
was 560 million yuan last year.
In addition, the peach pit carving art
of Yundu village, Linhe town, Siyang county, was included on UNESCO
World Intangible Cultural Heritage List.
With efforts to boost innovation, extend industrial
chain, and enhance value chain, Siyang has managed to organically integrate its
primary industry with the secondary and tertiary industries, and is bound to
enjoy a sweeter future with its peach industry.
Photo taken on Feb. 26 shows farmers watering and
weeding a peach orchard in a poverty-relief base in Dayu county of east China’s
Jiangxi province. (Photo by Wu Shousheng/People’s Daily Online)
Eco-friendly peach orchards E China’s Jiangsu province become money-spinner
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