2017 Stepping Out of Yangling to See the Demonstrations, Day Seven: A Farmer Woman in Baishui County, Weinan City Earns Over a Million Yuan a Year from Seedling Cultivation and Fruit Growing

"One apple a day keeps a lifetime of health for you." On June 19, the 2017 Stepping Out of Yangling to See the Demonstrations reporting team arrived at the Apple Experimental Station of Northwest A&F University in Baishui County, Weinan City, Shaanxi Province. This station brings together senior professional and technical personnel in breeding, cultivation, plant protection, soil fertility, storage and other related fields. It conducts scientific research mainly in apple germplasm resources and genetic breeding, collection and preservation of rootstock resources, and efficient apple cultivation techniques and quality improvement. It not only rationally utilizes idle land resources, but also enabled the 550,000-mu apple base in Baishui County to reach an output value of 4.2 billion yuan in 2016.

Dr. Zhao Zhengyang, chief expert at the Apple Experimental Station, said: "We now do only three things: first, the transformation of old orchards, reducing planting density, keeping the good ones and digging out the bad ones; second, research on new dwarfing and efficient cultivation techniques, ensuring the principles of 'market-oriented, quality first, technology advanced'; third, the promotion of new varieties among farmers, so that more farmers can enjoy the benefits brought by technology, mobilize their enthusiasm to participate, and thereby drive up the economy of the entire apple industry chain. Moreover, we adopt the 'four new' concept, namely new varieties, new technologies, new models and new mechanisms, to bring new development measures to farmers in the county and district."

Afterwards, the reporter came to the Apple Dwarfing Standardized Demonstration Base (Baishui County Qiulin Apple Professional Cooperative). This was established with the enthusiastic guidance and help of many experts and professors from the county fruit industry bureau and the Baishui Apple Experimental Station of Northwest A&F University. Farmers have taken root in the fields year-round to learn seedling cultivation, grafting and other techniques. Now the women of Beima Village have established a 40-member grafting technical team, ending the history of Baishui County relying on people from Yangling for grafting. Lin Qiufang, chairman of the cooperative, said: "We want to thank Professor Zhao Zhengyang. He often comes to the fields to guide us. A few years ago we were all learning to graft for others. Professor Zhao Zhengyang suggested that we cultivate seedlings for ourselves. At first I did not even dare to think about it. Later he often came to the fields to teach us, and gradually I became bolder. I began to cultivate seedlings for myself. Last year I earned more than a million yuan, and all at once I had both a house and a car. Now many people in our village have started to develop in this direction. From originally doing odd jobs, we are now technical talent too, and all of this was brought to us by Professor Zhao Zhengyang."

Nowadays, farmers in Baishui County have gradually embarked on the road to prosperity. More farmers have begun to realize the importance of scientific farming and have started to actively participate in more science and technology seedling cultivation study and training. Farming will no longer be a job with "small output and low returns," but will instead achieve new development of "an abundant harvest of all grains, benefiting the country and the people" by combining new science and technology with new agriculture.