Gansu Ning County's specialty agricultural products open the door to farmers' prosperity

In the 100-mu black goji berry sightseeing and pick-your-own demonstration garden in Lindian Village, Jiaocun Town, Ning County, Gansu, village Party secretary Li Xiaoming is busy hoeing weeds at the edge of the field. Speaking of the village's specialty industry, he said proudly: "Last year, the Wuguyuan Planting and Breeding Farmers' Professional Cooperative earned 4.8 million yuan from selling dried black goji berries through e-commerce platforms. After deducting labor and other expenses, the net income was 4 million yuan."

Li Jun, chairman of the Wuguyuan Planting and Breeding Farmers' Professional Cooperative, is a man widely praised by local people as someone who has found the path to prosperity. In early 2015, after learning from a CCTV program that ecological black goji berry cultivation had broad prospects, Li Jun led cooperative members on multiple visits to ecological black goji berry demonstration planting bases in Qinghai, Ningxia and other places to observe and study, learning advanced knowledge and techniques for the production, management and sales of ecological black goji berries. After securing a county-level project to create a "100-mu Ecological Black Goji Berry Sightseeing and Pick-Your-Own Demonstration Garden" for the cooperative, he led fellow villagers to develop ecological black goji berries together, embarking on a path to shared prosperity.

That year, with assistance from the village-based support team and the county agricultural technology extension center, Li Jun followed the gradually expanding path of "village Party branch + cooperative + demonstration garden + farming households." In accordance with standardized technical specifications for ecological black goji berries, using a model of "farmyard manure + biological bacterial fertilizer + manual weeding," he transplanted black goji berry seedlings of more than three years old introduced from Qinghai and established the "Ning County Lindian Ecological Black Goji Berry Sightseeing and Pick-Your-Own Demonstration Garden."

During the days when the black goji berries sprouted, bloomed and set fruit, he and village officials such as Li Xiaoming often skipped meals and stayed in the demonstration garden every day, observing the growth of the black goji berries. When diseases or pests were found, they sought technical guidance through WeChat groups from technicians at the county agricultural technology extension center and professors at Northwest A&F University, promptly solving problems and ensuring the normal growth of the black goji berries. Under their careful tending, the cooperative's black goji berries that year reached an average income of 10,500 yuan per mu.

Last year, the ecological black goji berry sightseeing and pick-your-own demonstration garden of the Wuguyuan Planting and Breeding Farmers' Professional Cooperative reached 405 mu. Because of their good appearance and taste, the ecological black goji berries grown there were not only available for local urban and rural residents to pick themselves, but also sold well through the cooperative's e-commerce platform in Shaanxi, Hebei and other places. While increasing income, the cooperative also absorbed 40 poor households in the village, helping them escape poverty through land rent, dividends from poverty-alleviation share capital and employment. Driven by the cooperative's demonstration garden, 84 farming households in the village have embarked on the path to prosperity by growing black goji berries.

Under Li Jun's leadership, the ecological black goji berry sightseeing and pick-your-own demonstration garden in Lindian Village is steadily moving toward large-scale park development, standardized production, branded products and networked marketing. This year's dried ecological black goji berries are expected to generate an average income of more than 13,000 yuan per mu. "The ecological black goji berry industry has excellent 'money' prospects. The cooperative will expand the scale of the demonstration garden year by year and lead fellow villagers to common prosperity through 'tourism+' and 'e-commerce+' models," Li Xiaoming said.

In recent years, Ning County has firmly established and effectively implemented the development concepts of innovation, coordination, green development, openness and sharing. It has cultivated specialty agricultural products that meet market demand and sell well as the "staunch crops" that help the people escape poverty and strive for a moderately prosperous life, continuously increasing support. At present, the county has built 110 100-mu sightseeing and pick-your-own demonstration gardens for flowers such as peonies and roses, landscape seedlings such as golden-leaf elm and red maple, and fruits and vegetables such as prunes and Jinxiu yellow peaches, covering 17,300 poor households.

Thanks to the rapid development of these sunrise industries that enrich the people, the county successfully reduced poverty by 46,800 people last year, and the poverty incidence rate dropped to 2.55%. This year, the poverty incidence rate is expected to fall below 2%.