Premium Agriculture in Turpan City Makes Fruits and Vegetables Fragrant in the Desert Basin
Right now, in the apricot orchard of Nanhu Village, Xia Township, Toksun County, **Turpan City, the ping-pong-ball-sized "Sultan" apricots are ripe. Sultan, a Uyghur elder in his seventies, stands at the edge of the apricot grove, gazing at the fruit hanging from every branch, a contented smile on his face. Sultan is a highly accomplished "local expert." The apricot trees he devoted himself to cultivating and that are now widely planted throughout Turpan have brought farmers and herders an income of nearly 20,000 yuan per mu, and this superior fruit tree has been named "Sultan."
Today, Nanhu Village has developed 5,200 mu of "Sultan" apricots, along with 2,300 mu of grapes, 1,600 mu of melon fields and 500 mu of jujube orchards. Villagers enjoy beautiful scenery in spring, fruit in summer, harvest in autumn and hope in winter all year round. In 2015, the village's per capita income exceeded 100,000 yuan, and it has been selected by Turpan City as a demonstration site for prosperous-people housing construction for two consecutive years.
Nanhu Village is a microcosm of Turpan's development of premium agriculture.
In the desert basin, fruits and vegetables are fragrant. In 2013, Zhang Wenquan, Secretary of the Turpan Municipal Party Committee, proposed creating a "premium edition" of Turpan's modern characteristic agricultural development, focusing on "precision cultivation, precision planting, precision management, precision processing and precision marketing," accelerating the pace of intensive agricultural management, large-scale production and mechanized operations, and transforming modern agriculture into tourism agriculture, export-earning agriculture and health agriculture. With premium agriculture as the driving force, Turpan is forging a path of transformation and upgrading from traditional agriculture to modern characteristic agriculture.
Based on the City's Reality, Finding the Right Path: Premium Agriculture Leverages Strengths and Avoids Weaknesses
"The Grapes of Turpan Are Ripe" is a golden hit known to every household, and it has also made the whole nation remember Turpan's most famous specialty.
Walking across Turpan's 69,700 square kilometers of land, what comes into view alongside the villages are the lush vineyards surrounding them. If you are not an expert, you might not notice the differences between different vineyards: some grape trellises are low, while others are tall.
"These differences are not small at all." In the view of Wang Jiuzhong, member of the Turpan Municipal Party Committee Standing Committee, Head of the Organization Department and the official in charge of agriculture, the height of grape trellises is an external label for measuring whether premium agriculture has already begun; but at a deeper level, it directly affects the profitability of this "sweet enterprise" of grapes.
"In the past, Turpan did not use premium agriculture thinking in grape planting and management, and continued to use traditional low concrete-pillar trellis systems on a large scale. This planting model led to poor ventilation and light penetration in vineyards, making them prone to pests and diseases, and it was not conducive to pruning, which naturally affected profitability; when spraying pesticides, large spraying machines could not get in, affecting field management efficiency; when picking grapes, you could not even straighten your back and had to crouch or kneel on the ground, making the work both slow and tiring; whether for harvesting or clearing the orchard, agricultural tricycles could not drive in, and everything relied on brute force... All of these are manifestations of extensive management. So without premium grape cultivation, mechanized operations are just empty talk; moreover, a bumper harvest does not necessarily mean increased income." Wang Jiuzhong feels deeply about the drawbacks of traditional grape cultivation.
Grapes are not the only thing that needs to change from its relatively backward status quo. "For another example, Turpan's cotton planting area is relatively large, but in the past two years the comparative benefits of cotton have been rather low. In 2015, although Turpan's cotton planting area was reduced by 60,000 mu compared with the previous year, the problems of relatively backward cotton planting methods, extensive management and relatively poor economic returns have not been fundamentally solved." said Xie Qiang, Vice Mayor of Turpan City. Turpan's agricultural water use accounts for more than 90% of water resource consumption, but the annual output value created by agriculture is still less than 2 billion yuan, contributing only 15% to Turpan's GDP, and this comes at the cost of over-extracting more than 100 million cubic meters of groundwater each year. This development model is unsustainable.
Turpan is a grape city. Dwelling on this, let us return to grapes. However, on one hand there is historical glory, and on the other hand there is present-day awkwardness.
As a generous gift from nature to the Turpan Basin, grapes have become a specific symbol of Turpan across historical time and space, and since entering the new century they have been even more haloed with honors. As early as 2007, Turpan was designated by the Ministry of Agriculture as a national key advantageous production area for high-quality grapes; in 2008, Turpan grapes were selected as specially supplied fruit for the Beijing Olympics; in 2013, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine established in Turpan the country's only quality supervision and inspection center for grapes and grape products... In 2015, 500,000 mu of grapes generated income of 2.517 billion yuan, contributing 27.29% to the per capita income increase of the city's 500,000 farmers and herders, making it an important pillar industry promoting Turpan's rural economic development and farmers' sustained and rapid income growth.
But good products have not received the market evaluation they deserve. "Turpan's characteristic agricultural products have long been in a situation of 'first-class materials, second-class processing, third-class prices,' and this is also the weak spot in 'precision processing' and 'precision marketing' work. This situation cannot continue any longer." said Bai Bingshu, Vice Chairman of the Turpan Municipal CPPCC and Director of the Forestry Bureau. One important reason for this is the small scale of agricultural product processing enterprises. At present, among Turpan's 55 leading enterprises in agricultural industrialization at or above the municipal level, only 3 have annual sales of more than 50 million yuan, with limited radiating and driving capacity. Major industries such as raisins, wine and Hami melons all lack backbone enterprises capable of playing a leading role in the industrial chain. The level of deep processing of agricultural and livestock products is not high, and no flagship products have been formed.
Resource constraints are tightening, and supply-side structural reform is forcing change. Under the new economic normal, building premium agriculture has become Turpan's new coordinate for developing its primary industry.
"Does Turpan have the conditions to develop premium agriculture? Of course it does!" Yuan Xiaohua, Director of the Turpan Municipal Agriculture Bureau, is full of confidence. "Abundant light and heat resources and a unique natural climate have created the incomparable excellent quality of Turpan grapes, Hami melons and other fruits and off-season vegetables, making it an ideal choice for Urumqi's and the whole of Xinjiang's 'vegetable basket,' 'fruit plate' and 'meat tray.' As a pearl of the Silk Road, Turpan is at the meeting point of the 'three regions' of **northern, eastern and southern Xinjiang. This unique locational advantage gives Turpan access to both large domestic and international markets, and many agricultural products are exported to Kazakhstan, Russia, Japan and many other countries. Turpan is extremely rich in tourism resources. ** requires Turpan to be built into Xinjiang's 'grand reception hall,' attracting visitors from all directions... These are all Turpan's unique advantages. To make premium agriculture bigger and stronger, we must fully amplify our own advantages."
Demonstration and Leadership, Filling Shortcomings: Premium Agriculture Is in Full Swing
In developing premium agriculture, there is no way around the grape industry. Since 2013, Turpan City has taken the creation of premium grape orchards as demonstration and leadership, continuously increasing efforts to advance the construction of standardized grape production demonstration bases. In particular, through pilot trellis renovation, it has required low trellises to be raised to more than 1.2 m, greatly improving grape quality and yield. Farmers and herders who have benefited say that the renovated trellises are airy and bright, pleasing to the eye, and make work easier and more pleasant. Most importantly, not only did grape production not decline, it increased both yield and income. A traditional vineyard's net income is about 5,000 yuan per mu; after renovation, net income is 5,500-6,000 yuan per mu, 10%-20% higher in profitability.
Turpan is a nationally famous dry-hot region, long known as the "Fire Prefecture." In this intermontane basin in the eastern Tianshan Mountains, every spring peach blossoms, apricot blossoms and others bloom earliest, so Turpan also enjoys the reputation of "**'s First Spring." Blessed with gifted light and heat resources, it is suitable for the growth of many kinds of fruit. Led by grapes, various fruit industries are bursting with vitality.
Located in the Toksun County Agricultural Park, **Jinrun Jujube Industry Company's contiguous jujube groves are lush and verdant. Under a clear, boundless blue sky, farmers work among the trees, chickens and ducks forage beneath them, and birds sing in the branches, as if jointly performing a pleasant pastoral song. This is a **poverty-alleviation leading enterprise integrating red jujube research, planting, processing and sales. In recent years, based on building premium agriculture, it has researched and explored electronic information intelligent water-saving irrigation technology, saving 400 cubic meters of water per mu of jujube grove per year, saving 1,000 yuan in labor and increasing yield by 100 kg per mu. Deputy General Manager Du Xiaodong introduced that in recent years, through land transfer, the company has achieved large-scale operations and established more than 6,000 mu of red jujube science and technology demonstration bases in 4 townships across the county, demonstrating and driving more than 400 surrounding households and nearly 2,000 people to become prosperous through the red jujube industry. The company produces and processes more than 5,000 tons of red jujubes annually, and the 5 series and 28 kinds of red jujube products it has developed sell well in more than 10 large and medium-sized cities across the country. The company rehires farmers whose land was transferred as industrial workers, making them dual-income farmers. As of 2015, the company had arranged more than 30,000 person-times of local farmer employment, directly paying more than 15 million yuan in wages and more than 9 million yuan in land rent.