Adequate Farmyard Manure for Goji Berries Ushers in Full Fruit Period, Workers of the 83rd Regiment of the Fifth Division Increase Income

Baskets of bright red goji berries were carried from the fields to the field edge, waiting to be weighed. "This year the goji berries were not hit by disaster, the yield is large, and we have already harvested more than 500 kg of dried fruit." On July 3, Li Minghua, a worker of the 19th Company of the 83rd Regiment of the Fifth Division of the **Production and Construction Corps, said to this writer while handing out picking fees to the goji berry pickers.

The regiment is located in Jinghe County, the hometown of Chinese goji berries, with a unique climate, abundant sunshine and a large temperature difference between day and night. The goji berries are bright red, large and plump, with thin skin and thick flesh, rich in sugar and high in medicinal value, and are much favored by consumers. In recent years, the regiment has withdrawn from low-yield cotton fields to plant high-quality goji berries, adding more than 3,000 mu of goji berry planting area. In order to enable the workers to quickly master the key points of goji berry planting and management and see benefits early, technicians held on-site meetings on goji berry pest and disease control and pruning in batches and by stages, provided on-site guidance for the goji berry planting and management of each unit, and provided technical follow-up services, so that planting achieved a unified pruning model, unified management and unified fertilization.

While managing the cotton fields well, Li Minghua and his wife Wu Jing have grown 8 mu of goji berries for seven consecutive years, with considerable income every year. They originally grew cotton and other crops in the company like other workers, and the income was not bad. But when they saw that some workers in the company grew goji berries with good returns, they tried growing them themselves. In the first year, they tried planting 5 mu on contracted wasteland, and unexpectedly all of them survived. So starting from the second year, they expanded year by year until all 8 mu of wasteland was planted with goji berries. In the past two years, in order to increase goji berry yield, reduce the cost of goji berry planting, improve goji berry quality and increase income from goji berry planting, they invested in and completed drip irrigation facilities for the goji berries.

"Timely removal of excessive vegetative branches, weeds in the field and surplus seedlings can reduce nutrient consumption of the tree body and ensure that fruit branches obtain more nutrients. Pinching some spring branches to cultivate the second and third fruit-bearing branches to bear fruit, while applying more farmyard manure, can increase goji berry yield." Wu Jing told this writer that doing a good job in summer field management of goji berries plays an important role in improving the nutritional status of the tree body and the conditions for ventilation and light penetration, reducing the damage from massive reproduction of pests and diseases, improving the yield and quality of summer goji berries and increasing income.

In the goji berry field, pickers wearing straw hats sat on small stools, picking bright red, plump fruits one plant after another. Before long, the small plastic buckets at their feet were filled with fresh and tempting goji berries. The bright red goji berries not only filled the "money bags" of the growers, but also broadened the path to wealth for the people of the company and nearby local villages. A villager from Mang Township in Jinghe County told us that their family mainly grows cotton, and that now is the slack farming period after topping, so they use the slack period to come to the company to pick goji berries and earn a lot. Because they have picked goji berries for many years, they are quite handy at it. The picking fee is three yuan per kg, and they can earn about 180 yuan a day. A picker from the company said: "Every year during the goji berry ripening season, we all come here to do odd jobs, and we can pick about 80 jin a day." As she spoke, she and several companions took their baskets and disappeared again into the goji berry grove.

One mu of garden is worth ten mu of field. The regiment has aimed at the goji berry market and stepped up field management of goji berries. With advantages such as being pollution-free, large in grain, high in sugar, bright in color, thin-skinned and thick-fleshed, and high in medicinal value, the goji berries have become a hot commodity sought after by merchants at home and abroad, and have also opened up a new channel for workers and staff to increase income and become prosperous.