Innovation transforms Guiya village
2024-01-08 20:01:09
By Shen Yuan, Yichang International Communication Studio
Zigui oranges are in season and 32-year-old Yan Yi is revitalizing Guiya village with his innovative agricultural practices.
While villagers have been growing oranges for years, inconsistent quality will often prevent them from getting a decent return for their efforts.
Yan was previously a crew member on an international cargo ship. When coming back home to visit family, he would see his aging father carrying oranges down the mountain. Hoping to help out his father and fellow countrymen, he decided to return home in 2020 and become an orange farmer himself.
Yan rented about 7 hectares of land, and founded the Zigui Jiaxin Farmers' Cooperative. They started off small, with only five households joining the cooperative in the beginning.
Yan wanted to demonstrate the effectiveness of his new methods for spraying pesticides, and the results of the test were clear. Drone spraying is more efficient, allowing pesticides to be sprayed more evenly and saving in labor needed.
Zigui oranges are in season and 32-year-old Yan Yi is revitalizing Guiya village with his innovative agricultural practices.
While villagers have been growing oranges for years, inconsistent quality will often prevent them from getting a decent return for their efforts.
Yan was previously a crew member on an international cargo ship. When coming back home to visit family, he would see his aging father carrying oranges down the mountain. Hoping to help out his father and fellow countrymen, he decided to return home in 2020 and become an orange farmer himself.
Yan rented about 7 hectares of land, and founded the Zigui Jiaxin Farmers' Cooperative. They started off small, with only five households joining the cooperative in the beginning.
Yan wanted to demonstrate the effectiveness of his new methods for spraying pesticides, and the results of the test were clear. Drone spraying is more efficient, allowing pesticides to be sprayed more evenly and saving in labor needed.
After the tests, the farmers were convinced. They now use drones to water and fertilize the fruit trees. When the oranges are ripe, they slither down the sides of the hills to the stockpile point on monorails.
Nowadays, the cooperative is made up of 122 households, and the orange cultivation area has increased to 87 hectares, with production exceeding 200,000 kilograms. The price of oranges has increased as well, from about 0.75 yuan (10 US cents) a kilogram before 2020 to the current 1.50 yuan a kilogram. The annual income of the cooperative can reach about 10 million yuan in a good year.
