Injecting New Vitality into the Adjustment of the Rural Industrial Structure
The "Demonstration and Promotion of New Firm-Fleshed Peach Varieties" project, as an important part of the peach breeding project, is a research project that has received key support from the Ministry of Agriculture, the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission, and the Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences for many years. Through the application of 3 new firm-fleshed peach varieties independently bred by the Institute of Forestry and Pomology of the Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences and recognized or approved with independent intellectual property rights, 3.95 wan mu were promoted and planted in the Beijing area, with an average annual output of 88.34 million kg, an average annual total revenue of 351 million yuan, accounting for 75% of the number of firm-fleshed peach varieties in the city, and an application area accounting for more than 85%.
Through the approach of sexual crossbreeding, the demonstration and promotion project of new firm-fleshed peach varieties selected and bred a series of new mid-to-late maturing firm-fleshed peach varieties with excellent quality and suitable for cultivation in China for demonstration and promotion in production, solving the problems of the original varieties such as relatively soft fruit or low firmness at maturity, poor storability and transportability, and poor marketability. The level of this research is domestically leading and has broad development prospects.
Up to now, the 3 firm-fleshed peach varieties bred by the Institute of Forestry and Pomology of the Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences have been promoted over 10 years on an area of 3.95 wan mu, among which from 2011 to 2013, the cumulative increase in production was 265 million kg, the newly added net revenue was 1.054 billion yuan, and the average annual revenue per mu was 9053 yuan. The new varieties have high planting benefits and quick results, greatly improving farmers' enthusiasm for growing peaches and increasing farmers' income. The promotion of these varieties optimized the variety structure of peach-producing areas and played a prominent role in the development of local planting industries.
Through the method of crossbreeding, the new firm-fleshed peach varieties were initially selected from more than 10,000 hybrid seedlings, with more than 20 superior plants selected initially and more than 10 superior lines selected in the second round. After regional trials, 3 varieties of peach, "Jingyu", "Zaoyu", and "Huayu", showed stable shape, good quality, and high benefits in production. After application and appraisal review, Jingyu peach was recognized by the Beijing Municipal Crop Variety Approval Committee, and "Zaoyu" and "Huayu" were approved by the Beijing Municipal New Crop Variety Approval Committee.
The outstanding characteristics of these varieties are high firmness, a long picking period, tolerance to storage and transport, low transport costs, reduced losses in the fruit circulation process, and a long shelf life. At the same time, they have the characteristic of being freestone, and are deeply loved by consumers. The promotion of these 3 peach varieties extended the market supply period of freestone peach varieties and enriched the fruit market of the capital.
The institute selected 4 representative areas in the suburbs of Beijing for trial planting of the new varieties, investigated their biological characteristics, botanical characteristics, growth and fruiting habits, high yield performance, resistance, and so on in the trial planting orchards, and, according to their varietal characteristics, researched and determined suitable cultivation management techniques of good varieties with good methods; after entering the fruiting period, compared the market selling prices of the new varieties and the varieties they replaced, and evaluated the benefits of the new varieties; by comparing the agronomic traits, economic traits, and adaptability of the new varieties with the control cultivated varieties, a reasonable evaluation was finally obtained.
On the basis of production demonstration, for each new variety that had passed recognition or approval, it was promoted as soon as it matured, and farmers were trained in an organized manner, including winter training, technical seasonal work training, and so on. The planting scope was decided by district and county, township, village, and cooperative organizations as needed, and the new varieties were promoted under the guidance of relevant departments by providing seedlings and scion wood. At present, the promotion system for new firm-fleshed peach varieties of "research unit — district and county forestry bureau — township forestry station — village technician, village fruit tree association — farmer household" has basically been established.
The planting of new firm-fleshed peach varieties also increased forest coverage for some districts and counties and played a positive role in the ecological and environmental protection of the Beijing suburbs.