Why jujube farmers call Wu Zisheng a local expert
Our reporter Ma Aiping
????■ Targeted poverty alleviation, science and technology first
Wujiamao Village lies close to the banks of the Yellow River and is a well-known jujube-specialized village in Jiaxian County, Yulin City, Shaanxi Province. All 1600 mu of arable land in the village is covered by jujube groves, and in a normal year the per-capita income from jujubes reaches more than 5000 yuan.
"Wu Zisheng, 54, is hardworking and fond of research; he is our 'local expert.' He has led farmers in innovating jujube production techniques, making jujube production in Wujiamao and surrounding villages stand out with high yields and bumper harvests. He took the lead in founding a jujube cooperative, helping us jujube farmers increase income and become better off." This is how the villagers describe Wu Zisheng, Party branch secretary of Wujiamao Village.
In spring and summer, increasing pests make it hard for fruit to set, and in autumn continuous rain easily causes fruit cracking and mildew, troubling jujube farmers greatly. In early spring, when jujube leaves have just sprouted, a new local pest, the green plant bug, was ready to strike. Wu Zisheng discovered this disaster, selected suitable pesticides and spraying methods to demonstrate timely control, and went door to door teaching villagers control techniques hand by hand. After autumn arrived, jujubes in Jiaxian County, battered by pests and diseases, suffered large-scale reduced yields or even total crop failure, while jujubes in Wujiamao Village and surrounding villages, guided by Wu Zisheng, still achieved high yields and bumper harvests.
In spring and summer the weather was abnormal and pests and diseases were rampant, causing large-scale reduced yields of jujubes in Jiaxian County. Wu Zisheng kept watch in the jujube groves day and night, using his original pruning, pest control and fertilization techniques to cope with one natural disaster after another, and went from village to village to promptly inform surrounding villagers, ultimately overcoming various disasters. The jujube cracking rate in Wujiamao and surrounding villages was also far lower than in other areas, with average yield reaching more than 1200 jin per mu.
"In 2015, Wu Zisheng researched and innovated jujube high-yield management techniques for lowering tree shape, thinning branches and yield-test pruning, and transformed old jujube groves. This raised the rate of high-quality jujubes from the original 30% to 70%, and output value more than tripled." Staff of the Jiaxian County Science and Technology Bureau said that this technique was named "strong height reduction and shaping," won the 2015 Yulin City Scientific and Technological Achievement Award, and was vigorously promoted in the Jiaxian jujube area, with 40000 mu of jujubes transformed that year.
The household-based scattered management model restricted the quality and efficiency of the jujube industry. In 2007, Wu Zisheng took the lead in establishing the Jiaxian County Qiannian Zaoyuan Jujube Industry Cooperative and registered the "Qiannian Youzao" brand.
The cooperative is composed of more than 240 jujube-farming households from the village and neighboring villages. It conducts unified management and comprehensive services for all links of jujube production, processing and sales, carries out technical trials such as "strong height reduction and shaping" and greenhouse jujubes, provides unified packaging, unified standards, a unified registered brand and unified guidance prices for jujube products, builds organic jujubes, and establishes an e-commerce service platform to help jujube farmers sell jujubes. It has also invested in building large baking ovens and cold storage equipment, using unique techniques to produce more than a dozen varieties of jujube products that are widely favored by the market, with annual jujube processing reaching 3 million kg.
"Driven and served by the cooperative, jujubes produced in Wujiamao and surrounding villages not only sell at a good price, but jujube farmers have also mastered high-yield techniques, helping more than 30 poor households in the cooperative escape poverty." When talking about lifting farmers out of poverty, Wu Zisheng was especially happy. In autumn 2015, the cooperative held the Jiaxian County Jujube Picking Festival in Wujiamao Village and signed multiple purchase and sales agreements. The Qiannian Zaoyuan Jujube Industry Cooperative has become a modern jujube demonstration base integrating scientific and technological demonstration, technical training, processing and sales, and tourism.
Wu Zisheng always uses plain and easy-to-understand language and vivid examples, and has trained more than 10000 cadres and villagers in total. Wu Zisheng also voluntarily serves as a jujube technical service instructor in Jiaxian County, participates in various jujube theory seminars, and shuttles back and forth tirelessly.
Wu Zisheng has successively received honorary titles such as Yulin City science and technology commissioner, Jiaxian County Special Contribution Award for Jujubes, Yulin City Scientific and Technological Achievement Award, and Yulin City Model Worker. But he is still not satisfied. "Making more jujubes 'red' and leading the many jujube farmers along the Yellow River onto the road to prosperity is where my dream lies," he said.