Poor household in Baitang Village, Ding'an, enjoys a bumper harvest of wax apples
Wu Lifeng picking wax apples.
Early on the morning of the 2nd, in Qishi Village, Baitang Village Committee, Huangzhu Town, Ding'an County, seeing the collection truck had already reached the village entrance, poor household Wu Lifeng hurried to his wax apple orchard.
In the orchard, more than ten fruit trees, each taller than a person, swayed with their plump forms, and among the green leaves the full, bright wax apples clustered together, bending the trees' slender branches.
"Everyone knows my wax apples are good. As soon as the holiday ended, the buyers could not sit still and hurried to come collect the fruit." Although he had to start work early in the morning, Wu Lifeng's face was full of a brilliant smile. "Now is the best time to harvest wax apples. The fruit is crisp and sweet, and after the holiday the selling price has soared all the way."
"Choosing the path of growing wax apples was absolutely the right choice." Wu Lifeng said that in the past he made a living from two mu of paddy fields and a patch of rubber forest, and after toiling all year he still earned less than 2,000 yuan. Encouraged by village officials, he cut down the rows of rubber trees at home and switched to planting more than ten wax apple trees.
Wax apples are a delicate crop. In order to tend the wax apple seedlings well, Wu Lifeng squatted in the orchard every day. Village officials came to his home every few days to guide him, bringing him pesticides and organic fertilizer, and teaching him hand by hand how to prune, force flowering, fertilize and spray the wax apples.
"The bumper harvest of wax apples let me taste a precious kind of happiness." Wu Lifeng "showed off" his jacket, long dress trousers and orange-red leather shoes, and said happily, "I had not bought new clothes for several years. Before the New Year I earned more than 2,000 yuan from selling wax apples and bought myself a new outfit." He calculated that after the entire wax apple harvest, the income could reach more than 10,000 yuan.
During their chat, the picking work was already finished. Wu Lifeng sent bag after bag of wax apples onto the collection truck. Looking at the bright red fruit, he made up his mind: "This year I still have to work harder and continue to expand the planting scale, striving to shake off poverty as soon as possible."