Hawthorn cultivation sets the people of Beiyang Village in Jiangxian County on the road to prosperity

Beiyang Village in Jiangxian County develops hawthorn cultivation to enrich the people

    "I never imagined red berries could turn into strings of coins" 

    Beiyang Village in ancient Jiangxian Town, known as "Beiyang hawthorn best under heaven," has a tradition of villagers growing hawthorn, but what the villagers never expected was that the formerly unremarkable "red berries" would become more valuable year after year, and everyone's enthusiasm for developing hawthorn has grown higher year after year. Zhou Wenxing, who also serves as the village Party branch secretary, said: "Last year, the whole village's hawthorn output reached 1.5 million kg, with income of more than 50,000. This year it is expected to reach 2 million kg, and the villagers' income will exceed 3 million yuan, more than 3,300 yuan per person. I really never imagined the red berries would truly turn into strings of coins." 

    Compared with ordinary growers, Shi Naiwu's income is even more considerable. As one of the few early hawthorn growers in Beiyang Village, he is also a broker in the village. Besides selling his own hawthorn, he also helps other fruit growers find buyers, earning an extra 30,000 to 50,000 yuan each year. For storage, another hawthorn broker in the village, Gao Xiaosuo, even built a cold storage facility with a capacity of 300 cubic meters, able to store 125,000 kg of hawthorn. In this way, his income can reach more than 100,000 yuan. 

    "The people of Beiyang have a strong sense of the market!"

    Beiyang Village has a total of 904 people, with hawthorn planting area of more than 1,300 mu, accounting for 94% of the village's total arable land. 

    Hawthorn has a cultivation history of more than 20 years in Beiyang Village. As elsewhere, the people of Beiyang also suffered from falling market prices and the blow of being unable to sell their hawthorn. Some villagers even cut down their trees in tears. At the worst point, only a bit more than 100 mu of hawthorn trees remained in the whole village. 

    In 1997, the local leading enterprise Shanxi Weizhiwang Food Co., Ltd. signed minimum-price buyback contracts with Beiyang fruit growers, hawthorn prices in various places began to recover, and the planting area continued to grow and expand. Today, hawthorn has become the pillar industry of Beiyang Village. The village has successively been named a "High-quality Hawthorn Base" and a "National High-quality Nursery Stock Base" by the Ministry of Agriculture. Beiyang Village became a model for the whole county in taking the lead in hawthorn cultivation, and the villagers also tasted the sweetness of hawthorn. 

    Talking about the hawthorn history of Beiyang Village, Dong Jiqiang, deputy county magistrate of Jiangxian County, said: "The people of Beiyang have a strong sense of the market!" 

    "We have benefited from science and technology!"

    In the face of the leaders' praise, the villagers of Beiyang Village always say modestly: "We have benefited from science and technology!" 

    In September 2006, Beiyang Village established the Hawthorn Science and Technology Cooperative. From then on, the village's hawthorn industry entered the fast lane of scientific, large-scale and high-efficiency development. In terms of planting technology, the cooperative relies on the Fruit Tree Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Northwest A&F University and the Horticulture Research Institute of the Shanxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and takes "science and technology guidance, expert participation; voluntary participation, democratic management; linked to the market above, linked to farmers below; whole-process service, shared benefits" as its service purpose. From cultivating fruit seedlings to selling fruit, it provides farmers with "one-stop" pre-production, mid-production and post-production services. Under the guidance of experts, the cooperative regularly carries out education for fruit growers on pest and disease prevention knowledge and the promotion of new hawthorn technologies and new varieties, and actively broadens channels for farmers to become wealthy, extends the hawthorn industry chain, and achieves increased production and income. 

    Today, Beiyang Village has built a thousand-mu green hawthorn base. It has not only signed long-term price-protected purchase agreements with local food processing enterprises such as "Weizhiwang" Company, but also sells hawthorn far to Shandong, Hebei and other places, truly turning small hawthorn into a big industry.