Horticultural crops achieve quality and efficiency improvement through the "Three Improvements"
Recently, the Management Cadre College of the Ministry of Agriculture held the fourth national rotation training class this year for directors of major agricultural, animal husbandry, and fishery counties, with the theme of improving the quality and efficiency of horticultural crops, focusing training on a total of 110 agricultural (fruit industry) directors from key horticultural crop (apple) counties and cadres from the Ministry of Agriculture system. This training class organized a total of 11 special lectures, case analyses, and on-site teaching sessions. Trainees from various regions held group discussions on topics such as apple variety improvement, quality enhancement, and brand creation, discussing how to advance the “Three Improvements”.
Under the current new normal of China's economic development, how to transform the development model, promote quality and efficiency improvement in the fruit industry, and accelerate the pace of building a modern fruit industry has become a question that trainees are actively pondering.
Trainees generally believe that as apple profitability has become prominent in recent years, orchard scale has expanded rapidly, creating a large demand for nursery stock, which mainly relies on transfers from other provinces, and variety and quality cannot be guaranteed. Wang Xilin, director of the Fruit Industry Bureau of Qinzhou District, Tianshui City, Gansu Province, said: “The government must increase support and establish its own apple nursery stock breeding base to lay the foundation for the sustainable development of the apple industry.” Wang Xilin also suggested slowing the pace of orchard scale expansion and taking the path of first breeding seedlings and then expanding.
As production conditions change, the aging of the production functions of old orchards has seriously affected the improvement of the overall efficiency of the industry. Regarding how to renovate old orchards, trainees from different regions introduced their own experiences one after another. Wang Yi, director of the Agriculture Bureau of Penglai City, Shandong, believes that relying on model-driven demonstration is the most effective way to renovate old orchards: show fruit farmers what to do, lead fruit farmers in doing it, and let fruit farmers truly see the necessity and benefits of old orchard renovation. At the same time, the government should strengthen support for old orchard renovation through special subsidies and other forms. Ren Zhijiang, deputy director of the Fruit Industry Development Center of Haiyang City, Shandong, proposed that in view of the current shortage of rural labor, labor-saving integrated technologies should be vigorously developed and promoted, and attention should be paid to fertilizer and water management and pest and disease control during old orchard renovation.
At this training class, Shaanxi Baishui apples, as a typical example of brand creation, shared experience with the trainees. Wang Yangjun, director of the Fruit Industry Bureau of Baishui County, Shaanxi Province, said: “Baishui County follows the marketing plan of ‘government-led, enterprise-participating, one city per year, one policy per city, and repeating the cycle’, uses industrial concept standards to do a good job in production, uses industrialized marketing strategies to do a good job in market marketing, and uses industrialized brand communication to do a good job in brand promotion, creating the golden signboard of ‘Baishui Apple’.” In addition, Wang Yangjun suggested that relevant national departments formulate brand development plans for key national agricultural products and support the brand building of agricultural products to strive for international famous brands.
In the final part of the training, the trainees went to Qianyang County, Shaanxi Province, for a visit and study. The boundless modern apple orchards with dwarf rootstocks and dense planting won praise from the trainees one after another. Facilities such as trellis cultivation, fertigation, meteorological observation instruments, and sensor-equipped lawnmowers made the trainees feel as if they were in an agricultural science and technology museum. “This place integrates the world's most advanced apple orchard establishment, planting, and management technologies.” said Li Bingzhi, chief expert of the Qianyang Experimental Station of Northwest A&F University.
“Although the training lasted only 5 short days, the content was rich. By consulting peers and experts, we found good solutions to the problems encountered in the development of the apple industry in our county. I hope more training classes like this will be held in the future.” After the training ended, Xue Jianrong, deputy director of the Fruit Industry Center of Ruicheng County, Shanxi Province, showed reporters a thick stack of notes he had recorded. Xue Jianrong said that after returning, he would turn what he learned in this training into practical actions in production and advance the quality and efficiency improvement of the apple industry.