Strawberry Sister Leads the Villagers to Grow Wealth-Bringing Strawberries
"Since the strawberries hit the market last November, I've often been too busy to even eat, and even so I've asked over a dozen sisters from Qianjin Village and other villages to come and help." Speaking of how busy things are now, Zhai Yage of Qianjin Village, Zhaocun Town, Xingping, said happily while wiping off sweat.
When it comes to Zhai Yage, everyone in the local area knows her name.
Born in 1968, Zhai Yage is a native of Xingping. After marrying into Qianjin Village, Zhaocun Town, she worked hard alongside her husband Li Yingjie, who had returned to his hometown after serving in the army. Some years ago, she and her husband ran a fruit express delivery business, giving her a wide network of contacts, and she also got to know some strawberry cultivation experts. In 2011, she contracted 55 greenhouses in Chang'an District and cultivated strawberries with great care, and the returns were fairly good.
After long-term cultivation, the land needed crop rotation, and on top of that, local costs of various kinds were rising, so Zhai Yage began to think about how to improve quality and efficiency in strawberry cultivation. When she learned that the 334 National Highway that Xingping was going to widen would pass only a little over 2,000 m from her hometown of Qianjin Village, she thought that if she could grow strawberries here, it could attract self-driving tourists to come and pick them, which would raise her income. But the moment she thought of the land issue, she ran into difficulty again: would farmers readily agree to transfer their land for large-scale cultivation? What she had not expected was that the people of Qianjin Village had also seen the promise of strawberry cultivation, and had also come to realize that "to grow strawberries well, individual households definitely can't do it; only by pooling the land for large-scale cultivation will it work." And so, with the strong support of the elders and fellow villagers of Qianjin Village, Zhai Yage's strawberry base was established.
With the strong support of the elders and fellow villagers of Qianjin Village, in 2016 Zhai Yage transferred 128 mu of land from farming households, introduced 6 new strawberry varieties including the world-advanced Zhangji, Hongyan and Snow White, adopted new techniques such as applying organic "set-meal" fertilizer, cold storage treatment of strawberry seedlings, natural pollination by honeybees, and flowering-period regulation, and built 12 strawberry greenhouses to high standards.
Because the varieties she introduced had advantages such as being suitable for transport, or good for fresh eating, or large, sweet and brightly colored, and because she treated customers honestly in sales, she attracted buyers from Xi'an, Xianyang, Gansu and other places, as well as several large wholesale markets, to come and purchase and pick. The "Shaanxi Strawberry Technology and Sales Exchange Group" she advocated and established has already reached more than 100 members. While growing and selling her own strawberries, she uses this platform to help peers solve technical problems and sales difficulties, and everyone affectionately calls her Xingping's "Strawberry Sister."
The fame of "Strawberry Sister" thus spread quickly through the industry, and people flocked to her cultivation base to sightsee and pick strawberries. On March 12, Zhai Yage held a strawberry-picking competition at the "Xingping City Maweipo Veteran Farm Fruit and Vegetable Base." At the picking site, the reporter saw that each picking basket cost only 50 yuan, and in less than 10 minutes, more than 200 picking baskets were handed out to visitors. Seeing the red, large strawberries, many visitors could not resist tasting a few first. "They're just sweet, so fresh; the ones you pick yourself really are different!" Auntie Yue, who came from Xi'an, brought her granddaughter and told her spring stories while picking, full of joy. Master Cheng, who runs a fruit shop in Wugong, said with a sigh when talking about Zhai Yage's strawberries: "She not only grows great strawberries, but her products are never adulterated; you could say she achieves consistency inside and out, top and bottom. Now every day I can sell 25 to 30 kg more strawberries than before."
When the topic of growing strawberries comes up, "Strawberry Sister" has endless things to say. "Farming is not easy, and it's heavily affected by the climate, so strawberry cultivation must be done with refined, standardized management: variety selection, organic fertilizer ratios, temperature and humidity regulation, flowering-period regulation, extending the fruiting period, and so on. None of it can be taken lightly. If something goes wrong, what will happen to the wages of the sisters who work with me? They're counting on those wages to support their families too!"
Speaking of future development, Zhai Yage said that next she wants to develop processing of products such as strawberry wine and strawberry jam, increase income through multiple channels, and make the strawberry industry better and stronger. Only in this way can she truly help the people of her hometown and make strawberries truly become the "wealth berries" that raise the villagers' incomes.