In Dongxing District, Neijiang City, Sichuan, local walnuts turn into a fruit of prosperity, helping farmers increase income

Government supports large growers, large growers lead villagers

"The seedlings must be inserted straight; it is best for one person to hold them while another fills in the soil. The soil around the roots should be a little lower than the surrounding soil so rainwater can flow to the roots." On November 25, in Huanglong Village, Xindian Township, Dongxing District, Neijiang City, Yin Wencui, head of the Huiyao Walnut Planting Professional Cooperative, was guiding villager Guo Changbin hand by hand in planting walnut seedlings.

Huanglong Village is relatively remote, and most of the land is difficult to use in contiguous plots. Many young people in the village go out to work, and the land is seriously abandoned. How to develop and become prosperous became a difficult problem facing Tang Xinhua, secretary of the village Party branch. "With conditions like those in our village, companies are unwilling to come in, and if we just wait, we can only be poor for a lifetime."

In recent years, the village also took the initiative to try growing lemons, pears, loquats, mulberries for silkworms, and other crops, and it also introduced walnut seedlings from other places, but the results were not good. "It was only last year that we learned there was a local 'Huiyao' walnut with a high fruiting rate that also sold well," Tang Xinhua said. "Huiyao No. 1" walnut is a new variety bred by Yin Wencui through improvement based on local walnuts. It has strong disease resistance, a high fruiting rate, and a unique taste, and is quite popular in the market. This year, Yin Wencui sold more than 10 tonnes of fresh nuts and 8 tonnes of dried nuts, with the highest price reaching 60 yuan per kilogram, and demand exceeded supply.

Faced with the attractive market prospects, Yin Wencui did not monopolize the walnut variety. Instead, she began broadly seeking cooperation in surrounding villages, and Huanglong Village was one of them. After negotiations, Huanglong Village and Yin Wencui settled on a cooperation model: Yin Wencui provides walnut seedlings and technical support, villagers are responsible for daily management, and after the nuts mature, Yin Wencui helps with sales.

In Tang Xinhua's view, this is much more cost-effective than villagers transferring land to a company and only collecting rent. "Our village is poorly located, and the land transfer fee is low, only two or three hundred yuan per mu. Even if people can earn money working for a company, it is still only a small number of people." According to Tang Xinhua's calculations, once the walnuts enter the full production period, the village's planned 1,000 mu of planting area will create 6 million yuan in gross income each year, driving an increase of nearly 10,000 yuan in per capita income for villagers.

At present, Poma Village in Baihe Town has already planted 1,500 mu, Paifang Village in Shuangqiao Town has 400 mu, and Zhongshan Township and Guobei Town also have over a hundred mu each. "In the next 3 years, my goal is to reach a planting area of 30,000 mu," Yin Wencui said. The reason she is willing to provide walnut seedlings and technology to surrounding villages is, on the one hand, to expand scale and influence and build a regional brand, and on the other hand, to thank government departments for their strong support.

It turned out that in 2011, when Yin Wencui transferred land, she paid nearly one million yuan in transfer fees for 18 years in one lump sum. Coupled with subsequent expenditures such as inspections in various places, purchasing walnut seedlings, and labor costs, Yin Wencui faced difficulties in cash flow.

In response to this situation, the Rural Work Committee of the Dongxing District Party Committee actively implemented the pilot work on rural property rights mortgage financing, helping Yin Wencui successfully obtain a loan of 1.8 million yuan using the operating rights of 400 mu of transferred land. At the same time, it helped Yin Wencui promote the "Huiyao" walnut brand at various exhibitions.

At the Third Sichuan Agricultural Expo held from November 19 to 23, "Huiyao" walnuts attracted a great deal of attention. Heads of professional cooperatives from Guang'an, Yibin, Zigong, and other places all reached cooperation agreements with Yin Wencui to introduce "Huiyao" walnut seedlings for local planting. "In poverty alleviation, some villages have good conditions, and companies are willing to come. But for villages like Huanglong Village with poor conditions, large growers are needed to lead them," said Tan Changliang, deputy director of the Rural Work Committee of the Dongxing District Party Committee. The district innovates its poverty alleviation approach by supporting large planting and breeding households, ultimately helping villagers.