Gerbera planting helps Zhang Village folks get on the road to prosperity

In the bright March days of spring, spring flowers bloom in profusion. Amid the thousand-mu pollution-free fruit and vegetable demonstration base in Zhangcun Township, Dexing City, hides a sea of flowers in five colors; drawing closer, one sees gerberas blooming in a race to open.

This sea of gerberas covers more than 20 mu and is a fine "hope" for the grower Xu Xianghua to increase income and become prosperous. Two years ago, considering that the traditional vegetable crops grown by farmers yielded very little profit, Xu Xianghua introduced from the Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences a distinctive economic flower crop, the gerbera, and invested more than 800,000 yuan to build high-standard connected three-layer greenhouses in the township's fruit and vegetable base, trying to open a new path to prosperity. Over the past few years, by applying scientific production concepts and with plenty of sunshine and rain, his gerberas are now growing beautifully.

It is understood that Xu Xianghua's gerbera base can produce more than 40,000 gerbera plants a year. At a market price of around 7 mao per plant, the annual income can reach more than 300,000 yuan, a very considerable return. At present, Xu Xianghua is considering doubling the planting area again, and by establishing a family farm, introducing more new gerbera varieties, and building an ecological farm focused on experiential agricultural tourism and leisure sightseeing, guiding villagers to join in and achieve common prosperity.