Outside experts share their know-how and bring wealth to local peach farmers

"There are 10 tons of peaches on the truck. They were ordered from Shanghai, and 6 truckloads have already been sent in a row. Starting tomorrow, we'll begin shipping to Nanjing..." On July 3, at the 10,000-mu peach planting demonstration base in Tianganghu Township, Sihong County, Jiangsu Province, fruit farmer Li Chaozhong said happily.

Just 3 years ago, Li Chaozhong was still a fruit farmer in Dangshan, Anhui. In 2013, he came to Tianganghu Township in Sihong County to "strike gold," transferring 212 mu of land to plant peach trees. "This year the wholesale price of peaches is four yuan per jin, and the supermarket retail price is six yuan and eight jiao per jin. The benefit per mu of peaches is at least more than 3,000 yuan." Although this year is still the early fruiting period for the peach trees, facing the red, large peaches hanging all over the branches, Li Chaozhong's joy was written all over his face.

"I really never expected that they could grow such delightful peaches on the slope land..." said Ma Fei, deputy township head of Tianganghu Township.

Ma Fei is someone who personally experienced large-scale peach planting in Tianganghu Township. The township is located in the southwestern ridge of Sihong County, where the land is poor, the fields have large drops in elevation, and farming conditions are backward. Crops basically depend on the weather for planting and harvesting. In a normal year, the net income per mu from wheat and corn is less than 1,000 yuan. When natural disasters strike, there may even be no harvest at all. As early as the autumn of 2002, Ma Fei, then Party branch secretary of Pangang Village in Tianganghu Township, led some farmers in trying to plant peach trees. "At that time, everyone planted varieties such as Qiannianhong, Hongbaoshi, and Lichun. Although the township and villages funded supporting construction such as roads and drip irrigation in the fields, because the nectarines were small and the picking period was concentrated in only 2 weeks, the prices were low, and the net income from even the best field was less than 3,000 yuan."

A chance opportunity created a bond between Tianganghu and Dangshan. In the spring of 2013, township Party committee secretary Yan Feng took the agricultural technology station, village Party branch secretaries, and some farmers to Anhui Province for study and inspection, passing through Dangshan. What opened their eyes was that here, during the full production period of nectarines, the highest net income per mu could reach 16,000 yuan. Both places were planting nectarines, so why was the income gap so large? They invited experts to test and analyze the soil quality of Tianganghu, and the conclusion was that the soil here is very suitable for planting fruits such as nectarines and apples.

"Could we introduce some incentive policies and try to bring Dangshan's fruit farmers over to promote the development of our peach industry?" The township leaders quickly reached a consensus. It turned out that Dangshan had little arable land, making it difficult to meet fruit farmers' need for expanded large-scale production.

With the support of the county, the township publicly promised: anyone who comes to Tianganghu Township to transfer land for planting fruit trees will receive a subsidy of 400 yuan per mu per year for 3 consecutive years. Dangshan fruit farmers were overjoyed and came to Tianganghu one after another to look for business opportunities.

Dangshan peach farmer Zhou Shuangxi was the first to "eat the crab." He invested more than 2 million yuan and transferred more than 1,000 mu of land from farmers in Pangang Village to plant nectarines. After just over a year, the trees bloomed and bore fruit, with income of nearly 3,000 yuan per mu. Seeing that it was profitable, Dangshan fruit farmers came one after another to "rent land." As of June this year, more than 100 people from Dangshan had planted peach trees in Tianganghu, with an operating area of more than 12,000 mu, accounting for more than 80 percent of the total peach planting area in Tianganghu Township.

Dangshan's fruit farmers really have a knack for growing peaches. Xu Zhiling invested more than 800,000 yuan and planted 280 mu of "Guangzhan No. 1" nectarines in Pangang Village. Although this year is still the early fruiting period, the peach yield per mu is more than 3,000 jin, and the largest single peach weighs 0.6 jin. Because of their good appearance and taste, the peaches are in short supply. "Generally speaking, peach trees enter the full production period after 4 years. Conservatively speaking, by then, with an average yield of more than 4,000 jin per mu, there will be no problem at all in breaking 10,000 yuan in income per mu."

Dangshan's fruit farmers are smiling broadly, and local farmers have also benefited greatly. Fang Ping's family in Wangji Residents' Committee of Tianganghu Township, who is over 40 years old, is a low-income household, and the peach orchard is right at her doorstep. After Dangshan fruit farmers settled here, she became a "worker." Pruning, spraying, weeding, picking, and packing, there is farm work almost every day, with income of more than 60 yuan a day and nearly 20,000 yuan a year.

According to reports, more than 2,000 farmers in the township work in the orchards, increasing wage income by nearly 50 million yuan annually. Yang Qing, a farmer in Zhaoma Residents' Committee, planted more than 20 mu of peach trees, still the old variety "Qiannianhong" from more than 10 years ago, with a net income of only 1,500 yuan per mu. Faced with such a large price gap, he decided to replace it with a new variety this winter. In order to help local farmers gain more benefits, the township and village levels of Tianganghu also acted as a bridge, mobilizing 22 local farmer households to plant share-based peaches by contributing land while Dangshan fruit farmers contributed technology as shares. This year the cooperative area reached 3,000 mu.

At present, the peach planting area in Tianganghu Township has reached 15,000 mu. Based on the existing area, it is expected that after 2 years, the total output of peaches will reach more than 30,000 tons, with an annual output value of 140 million yuan. Compared with planting grain crops, the economic benefit per mu of planting peach trees is more than 10 times greater.

The land is still that same land. Once the operating entity changed, it quickly brought rapid transformations in many aspects, including variety selection, technical management, business philosophy, sales channels, and economic benefits. How to improve land output efficiency? The fact that "immortal peaches" have grown on the slope land of Tianganghu Township indeed brings people many insights.