Golden fruit helps Qingjiang escape poverty and become prosperous, total output value reaches 240 million yuan

In March, spring is in full swing and all things revive. In the orchards large and small across Qingjiang Town, Zixing City, a busy scene unfolds. "Now is the best season to fertilize the ponkan and mandarin oranges. By this autumn, we can reap another bumper harvest." Huang Jing, a villager from Qingcao Village in Qingjiang Town who was loosening the soil and fertilizing the orange trees, said happily.

Qingjiang Town is the largest fruit production base in the Dongjiang Lake area, and also Zixing's largest citrus production base. It is a well-known "hometown of four-season fruits." In the 1980s, the Dongjiang Dam closed its gates to store water. To safeguard the production and livelihood of the resettled people, the Zixing resettlement department, based on the geographical and climatic conditions of the Dongjiang Lake reservoir area, guided the resettled people to vigorously develop the citrus industry. After 30 years of development, Qingjiang citrus has gradually become a brand with a good reputation and strong recognition, sold far and wide at home and abroad. In 2015, Qingjiang's citrus planting area exceeded 25,000 mu, total citrus output reached 150 million jin, total output value reached 240 million yuan, and the per capita citrus income of orange farmers exceeded 24,000 yuan.

Huang Jing is a native of Qingjiang and also a person with disabilities; he lost his left leg in an accident. Huang Jing once did coal mining business and worked as a fisherman. In 2012, after retiring 24 cage nets from the water and moving ashore, he planted an orchard, opened "Huang Jing Farmhouse," and was the first in Zixing City to launch a fruit tree adoption model. Adopters pay him a certain adoption fee and can come at any time to the farmhouse to eat, stay and travel, and can also visit the orchard, experience planting, and obtain the harvest. Last year alone, Huang Jing's net annual income reached 300,000 yuan.

Struggling outside is not as good as returning home to build a career. "The water of Dongjiang Lake is good, the soil of Qingjiang Town is good. The development of Qingjiang citrus has made Qingjiang tourism a sunrise industry." In 2009, Huang Haijing took a fancy to the development prospects brought by Qingjiang citrus, gave up a job in Shenzhen with an annual salary of 200,000 to 300,000 yuan, and returned to Qingcao Village to open a farmhouse. "During the peak tourist season, we have to receive more than a hundred people every day. When there are too many people, we can only stop receiving them." Now, Huang Haijing has built a new riverside building at his "Qinyuan Mountain Villa." He is full of expectations for this year's development.

Yuan Fangda, Minister of Armed Forces of Qingjiang Town, told this writer, "Now Qingjiang citrus harvests are good, and the villagers have become prosperous along with it. Qingcao Village and other major fruit-growing villages have almost all achieved poverty alleviation."

The continuous development of Qingjiang's citrus industry has also brought new sales channels into being. In January last year, Qingjiang Town opened the "Drunken Beauty Qingjiang" WeChat public platform and the "Four Seasons Network Qingjiang Township Agricultural Industry Belt," officially starting the era of online micro-business marketing, allowing Qingjiang citrus to step onto a new path of sales and prosperity.