Farmer finds success back home through apricot plums
2023-08-15 16:08:01
By Shen Yuan, Yichang International Communication Studio
Wu Hongju from Shuangping Village in Yichang returned to her hometown to plant apricot plums, bringing new opportunities to local villagers.
In 2013, Wu had been working in Guangdong for 15 years, but she never felt a sense of belonging. With deep nostalgia, she decided to return home and start her own business.
After researching the market, Wu decided to develop modern agriculture to plant apricot plums. She noticed they were widely purchased in Guangzhou but had not yet spread in her hometown.
At the end of 2013, Wu used all her savings to lease 400 mu (26.67 hectare) of land to plant apricot plum seedlings.
After more than a month, most of the 5,000 saplings survived. Wu felt relieved that her efforts were paying off.
In the spring of 2016, workers dosed the wrong ratio of pesticide. As a result, all the leaves on the more than 200 saplings that were sprayed turned black and fell off overnight. The saplings survived only after pomologists visited the site to guide the use of the pesticide and cut off all the branches on the trees to preserve the main trunk.
Since then, Wu has worked harder and harder. She realized that only through scientific cultivation and management will the planting industry expand. This prompted her to buy books and continue learning about related technologies and further experiment with different strategies.
2017 was the farm's first year of official fruiting. That year, more than 10,000 kilograms of ripe apricot plums were harvested, generating more than 300,000 yuan (US$41,227) in revenue.
Wu has been successful but that has not caused her to forget about her fellow villagers. Since the beginning of planting apricot plum trees, all the workers have been local villagers.
One employee is Liu Guojin, who happened to be hard of hearing. Wu invited Liu to work on the farm and even took him to the hospital for an evaluation. After receiving a cochlear implant placement, Liu’s hearing has greatly improved.
Now, there are more than 1,000 mu of apricot plum trees. The farm harvests 150,000 kilograms of fruit, and the sales income is about 1 million yuan. More than 130 households are employed as seasonal helpers, which brings them more than 5,000 yuan per household every year.
In the future, Wu plans to expand sales channels and carry out projects such as picking experiences, rural tourism, farmhouse entertainment, etc. She hopes that the farm can expand into the rural tourism industry, further boosting the economy for local villagers.
Three Gorges Daily's Gong Changjun contributed the original Chinese story for this report.
Photo by Three Gorges Daily.
Wu Hongju from Shuangping Village in Yichang returned to her hometown to plant apricot plums, bringing new opportunities to local villagers.
In 2013, Wu had been working in Guangdong for 15 years, but she never felt a sense of belonging. With deep nostalgia, she decided to return home and start her own business.
After researching the market, Wu decided to develop modern agriculture to plant apricot plums. She noticed they were widely purchased in Guangzhou but had not yet spread in her hometown.
At the end of 2013, Wu used all her savings to lease 400 mu (26.67 hectare) of land to plant apricot plum seedlings.
After more than a month, most of the 5,000 saplings survived. Wu felt relieved that her efforts were paying off.
In the spring of 2016, workers dosed the wrong ratio of pesticide. As a result, all the leaves on the more than 200 saplings that were sprayed turned black and fell off overnight. The saplings survived only after pomologists visited the site to guide the use of the pesticide and cut off all the branches on the trees to preserve the main trunk.
Since then, Wu has worked harder and harder. She realized that only through scientific cultivation and management will the planting industry expand. This prompted her to buy books and continue learning about related technologies and further experiment with different strategies.
2017 was the farm's first year of official fruiting. That year, more than 10,000 kilograms of ripe apricot plums were harvested, generating more than 300,000 yuan (US$41,227) in revenue.
Wu has been successful but that has not caused her to forget about her fellow villagers. Since the beginning of planting apricot plum trees, all the workers have been local villagers.
One employee is Liu Guojin, who happened to be hard of hearing. Wu invited Liu to work on the farm and even took him to the hospital for an evaluation. After receiving a cochlear implant placement, Liu’s hearing has greatly improved.
Now, there are more than 1,000 mu of apricot plum trees. The farm harvests 150,000 kilograms of fruit, and the sales income is about 1 million yuan. More than 130 households are employed as seasonal helpers, which brings them more than 5,000 yuan per household every year.
In the future, Wu plans to expand sales channels and carry out projects such as picking experiences, rural tourism, farmhouse entertainment, etc. She hopes that the farm can expand into the rural tourism industry, further boosting the economy for local villagers.
Three Gorges Daily's Gong Changjun contributed the original Chinese story for this report.
Photo by Three Gorges Daily.
