Grapes that won a gold award grown in the hometown of apples sell for as much as 32 yuan per jin
On the sixth day of the first lunar month, Weirong Town in Jingning County, Gansu Province, was still full of New Year atmosphere! Every household was either welcoming relatives and friends who had come from afar, or bringing gifts to visit relatives and friends and exchange New Year greetings.
But Zhang Qi, general manager of the town's Changfengdeng Family Farm, and the person in charge of the town government had long since become busy, driving more than 60 km to Longwangba Village in Xiji County, Ningxia, which borders Jingning, to study and tour this village's successful experience in developing rural sightseeing tourism.
"By developing sightseeing tourism, they turned a barren land into a beautiful new countryside. CCTV-7 filmed its Farmers' Spring Festival Gala program here, and city residents from big cities come here to celebrate the New Year. It is truly remarkable!"
"We are indeed deeply inspired! We have more than 300 mu of high-quality vineyards, and our industrial foundation is stronger than Longwangba's. Developing pick-your-own leisure agriculture should have even greater potential!"
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On the way back, the two were extremely excited and discussed it back and forth. Both shared a common wish - in 2017, to turn Weirong Town's 300 mu of vineyards into an ecological fresh-fruit planting park integrating leisure picking, and lead more local people out of poverty.
Because of its unique geographical conditions, Jingning County was designated by the Ministry of Agriculture as a premium apple-growing area on the Loess Plateau, and the apple industry has become the leading industry for enriching the people and strengthening the county. But Weirong Town has a lower altitude, and growing apples there has poor ventilation. The quality of the fruit produced is far below that of the county's main apple-producing area in the south, while the sandy soil of the riverbank is uniquely suited to growing grapes.
After hiring experts and professors from Gansu Agricultural University for detailed demonstration, Zhang Qi, who had previously been engaged in carton processing, began his transformation at the age of 50, founded Changfengdeng Family Farm, and built 19 grape greenhouses covering more than 200 mu and an open-air vineyard of more than 100 mu.
Organic cultivation is the most distinctive feature of this vineyard. In order to achieve ecological circular development, the vineyard has ponds for raising ecological fish, and the local water conservancy department also installed drip irrigation systems for the greenhouses, using water from the fish ponds for drip irrigation to increase soil organic matter. Because of the heavy application of biological bacterial fertilizer and fully decomposed farmyard manure, the grapes produced by Changfengdeng Family Farm are large, brightly colored, and excellent in taste, and won 3 gold awards at the 2016 Nanning "Second National Double-Crop Grape Innovation and High-Quality Winter Grape Evaluation Conference" (for the three grape varieties Red Globe, Autumn Black, and Crimson Seedless).
During the interview, we learned that although the price is as high as 32 yuan per jin, far above ordinary grapes sold on the market, because of the fame of the "gold-award grapes" and their unique flavor, starting from the twelfth lunar month, visitors came in an endless stream to Changfengdeng Farm to fish through the ice and pick grapes, and the thirtieth day of the first lunar month was no exception. The farm's daily turnover reached 20,000 yuan.
"Growing 'gold-award grapes' in the hometown of apples is our greatest harvest, but there are also quite a few problems we face!" Speaking of development, Zhang Qi said that in 2017 he would more firmly take the path of organic cultivation and try integrated development of planting and tourism.
"In 2016, because ventilation was not timely and the temperature inside the greenhouses was too high, the grapes in several greenhouses shrank severely. The lesson was painful! This year, all 19 greenhouses must be equipped with the Internet of Things to achieve precise control of temperature and moisture inside the greenhouses; in addition, we have already transferred more than 30 mu of forest farm and plan to use the pruned grape branches and leaves to raise ecological chickens, combining planting and breeding and turning waste into treasure; and the most important thing is that, with the help of the town government, we will draw on Longwangba Village's experience and practices to develop leisure sightseeing tourism and achieve greater added value in grape growing," Zhang Qi said with full confidence.