Walnut industry drives villagers to realize their dream of prosperity
Although it is already winter, walking along the road in Zhuanshan Group, E'jiao Village, Yushe Town, one can still feel a closeness to nature. The village houses are arranged in a pleasing scattered pattern, the roads are clean, and although the walnut trees and cherry trees have lost their leaves leaving only bare branches, they still radiate vitality. A fine drizzle drifts down from the sky, and from time to time a crisp birdsong can be heard... Truly a wonderful place to relax and unwind.
"Our village is full of mountain nooks and crannies. In the past we planted corn and wheat and such, and after a year of hard work there was still not much income. The villagers' lives never improved, and conditions were very difficult," said Song Yigui, director of E'jiao Village. In order to change this situation, the village began trial promotion of walnut planting in 2008. Although certain benefits were achieved, the villagers' thinking never really opened up. The villagers always thought that land was meant for planting corn, and wondered whether planting walnuts instead was crazy.
In fact, E'jiao Village has a very long history of planting walnuts. There is a walnut tree in the village that is several hundred years old. Nobody knows exactly how old this walnut tree is; they only hear people in their eighties and nineties say that when they were young, this walnut tree was already this big, and it is estimated to have lived five or six hundred years.
Although there is a tradition of planting walnuts, getting the villagers to change their mindset from planting corn and potatoes to planting walnuts was not so easy. "Later, as walnut prices rose, the families in the village who planted walnuts all made money, and only then did the villagers begin to feel that planting walnuts was more profitable than planting corn," Song Yigui said. Gradually, under the leadership of the village Party branch and the village committee, the village's walnut planting area expanded, Zhuanshan walnuts became more and more well-known, and more and more villagers benefited from planting walnuts. Besides planting walnuts, the village also planted cherries and built Zhuanshan Walnut Village, developing not only a walnut-based fruit industry but also rural tourism: walnut picking, cherry picking, and farmhouse dining, letting visitors come to E'jiao to enjoy the pleasure of picking by hand and getting close to nature.
At present, E'jiao Village has planted more than 7,000 mu (approx. 467 hectares) of walnuts, with an annual output of more than 250 tons and an output value of 5 million yuan; it has planted more than 2,000 mu of cherries and more than 200 mu of sweet cherries; it has built the Zhuanshan Walnut Picking and Sightseeing Garden, and established Shuicheng County Zhuanshan Tourism Development Co., Ltd., 2 planting and breeding professional cooperatives, and 5 farmhouse restaurants.
"We hope that by taking the path of integrating agriculture and tourism, the villagers can all make money and live good lives. Now we are also promoting the 'Three Changes' reform in the village. This not only increases our confidence in planting walnuts, but also injects new vitality into our village's development," Song Yigui explained. Since the implementation of the "Three Changes," the village's walnut planting area has expanded, and more people have come to E'jiao for tourism and leisure. On ordinary days, it receives more than 200 visitor trips per day, each farmhouse restaurant earns an average of more than 1,500 yuan, and villagers can earn more than 12,000 yuan a day just from selling walnuts. On weekends and holidays there are even more, almost twice as many as on ordinary days or more.
Luo Yuanzhao is a villager of E'jiao Village. Now all of his family's more than 20 mu of land are planted with walnuts. Although there are not yet many walnut trees bearing fruit, this year his family produced about 1,800 jin (approx. 900 kg) of walnuts and sold them for nearly 20,000 yuan. He also opened a small shop in the village. When there are many tourists, the small shop alone brings in about 2,000 yuan a month. "Planting walnuts has increased income at least 20-fold compared with farming before, and walnuts only need effort in the first few years after planting; after that there is no need for management. I wish I could have more land to plant walnuts," Luo Yuanzhao said.
"Although the 'Three Changes' is still a new thing, it truly has a great effect on rural development. Our village's 'Three Changes' has only just begun, but we all have great confidence in carrying it out. In the future we will not only plant walnuts, but also set up walnut processing factories and walnut trading markets, processing walnut milk, walnut oil, and so on, to bring the economic value of walnuts into full play," Song Yigui said. Next, E'jiao Village will continue to carry out the "Three Changes" work in the village, centering on the development approach of the "Three Changes" reform, using the walnut industry as a carrier, actively developing and strengthening the walnut and other fruit industries, taking the path of integrating agriculture and tourism, continuously optimizing the industrial structure, driving the whole village's villagers to increase income and become prosperous, and realizing the goal of "decisive battle for three years, escaping poverty" as soon as possible.