Ten-thousand-mu cherry orchard helps a Yongdeng couple get rich

Fellow workers Zhao Lin and Jin Fengxiang are busy earthing up and watering the cherry trees

At the mouth of Dachuan Gully in Wushengyi Town, Yongdeng County, local farmers have planted stretches of cherry trees. The cherry trees were planted last year, sprouted this spring, and blossom after blossom of cherry flowers holds out hope. "Planting cherry trees is like opening a 'green bank,'" says planter Da Fenglian. "The cherry blossoms are blooming, which means we'll be able to taste cherries this year. A year of hard work has not been wasted."

At the mouth of Dachuan Gully in Wushengyi Town, there are a thousand mu of good farmland and ten thousand mu of barren hills. After local farmer Kang Wei and his wife Da Fenglian earned their first pot of gold running an industry and trade company, they set out to give back to their fellow villagers, walked into the fields with 15 million yuan in cash, and took the broad sunlit road of realizing their "green bank" dream through agricultural production, leading their many fellow villagers to prosperity together.

They acted as soon as they decided. Early last spring, the couple led their fellow workers in planting ten thousand mu of cherry trees. Cherry trees are a rare variety locally, and the workers tended these saplings from afar as tenderly as precious treasures. Because the barren hills lack water, quite a few saplings still withered during the year's growth. In April and May this year, Da Fenglian and her fellow workers were busy replanting saplings and were rushed off their feet.

On May 16, the reporter visited this stretch of cherry orchard in Wushengyi Town after hearing about it. From far away, one could already see stretches of cherry trees budding and blooming. In the cherry fields, workers were busy at work, a scene of bustling production. Da Fenglian explained that the crowns of the cherry trees in the good farmland had already spread out, and they were expected to bear fruit this autumn. The cherry trees on the barren hills, with drip irrigation partially in place, were also growing very encouragingly. Looking across the hills, the place was full of workers; to preserve soil moisture, the workers of this agricultural company were busy mulching these delicate trees, and the gleaming white mulch formed a particularly striking sight.

Last year, Kang Wei and Da Fenglian successfully grew a cherry orchard in Wushengyi Town. This year, the couple extended cherry planting to some farmland in Chengguan Town, Yongdeng County. Da Fenglian said that because Chengguan Town is close to the county seat, the company transferred 500 mu of land in the town to plant cherry trees. The purpose of doing so, according to the agricultural company's preliminary plan, is that once the cherry orchard reaches scale, it will focus on developing understory economy and agritourism. To realize this plan sooner, the company also invested this year in building agricultural entity projects such as a peacock breeding farm.

In the evening, on farmland in Chengguan Town of the county, fellow workers Zhao Lin and Jin Fengxiang were busy earthing up and watering newly planted cherry saplings, smiles on their faces. The reporter joked, "You can still be this cheerful while working?" Zhao Lin said this was a "fresh" kind of work, and doing it was not tiring. He said the old three staples of wheat, corn and potatoes had worn people out with planting, and switching to cherry trees this year was the first time in his more than 50 years of life. "Next spring, I'll definitely plant some in my own field too," Zhao Lin said. The Yongdeng County agricultural department supports the development of farmland industry projects that enrich the people, and has provided strong policy and technical support for the "green bank" that Kang Wei and Da Fenglian dreamed of. It has also drawn up detailed near-term and long-term plans for the company to focus on developing understory economy, agritourism and the tourism industry.