In the early summer season, the rural fields of Yao County, Tongchuan City, are brimming with vitality. Standardized greenhouses are filled with the fragrance of melons and fruits, intelligent greenhouses nurture robust seedlings, and busy figures are everywhere in the fields.
Today, Yao County's agricultural sector is diversifying and upgrading. Each piece of fruit fattens the people's wallets, and each technological advancement polishes agriculture's "golden name card." Local specialty industries are thriving, and international agricultural cooperation is yielding frequent successes. A picture of industrial prosperity, enriching the people and invigorating the district, and open, mutually beneficial rural revitalization is gradually unfolding across the land of Yao County.
Recently, in the facility greenhouses of the Mazuiyuan Agricultural Professional Cooperative in Mazui Village, Shizhu Town, Yao District, the first batch of off-season hanging-vine watermelons officially opened for picking and market. Many tourists from surrounding areas came to experience the joy of picking in the fields.
"In the past, watermelons grew on the ground, leading to inconsistent appearance and being prone to pests and diseases. Now we use hanging-vine cultivation entirely, allowing the watermelons to receive light evenly from all angles, resulting in superior sweetness and shape," explained Pang Qiaorong, the cooperative's head.
Since introducing small gift watermelons in 2016, Pang Qiaorong has continuously optimized planting techniques, implementing refined cultivation of "one vine, one melon" to stabilize quality, and using manual pollination to ensure fruit safety and health.
Relying on this refined management model, the cooperative also labels each watermelon with its growth date, ensuring 100% ripeness at market while integrating picking experiences to extend the agricultural value chain.
Now, varieties like red-fleshed, yellow-fleshed, and yellow-skinned watermelons not only enrich market supply but also turn every acre of fertile land into a "field of prosperity."
The small hanging-vine watermelons have led the traditional planting industry onto a new path of specialized and premium development, driving stable income growth for farmers.
From single fruit and vegetable cultivation to overall coordinated development, Yao County is continuously addressing industrial shortcomings, strategically arranging a matrix of specialty agriculture, ensuring a year-round succession of fragrant fruits, and building new pillars for village collective economic growth.
In Xiaolei Village, Sunyuan Town, inside high-standard raspberry greenhouses, intelligent irrigation, fertilization, ventilation, and temperature control systems operate around the clock, creating an ideal environment for crop growth.
"This year, the first batch of over 3,700 raspberry seedlings we introduced are growing vigorously after just over 20 days of planting. They are expected to bear fruit by September and enter a high-yield period next year," said Yan Jun, Party Branch Secretary and Village Committee Director of Xiaolei Village.
"Previously, the village focused on strawberries and flat peaches, leaving gaps in the production and sales cycle. Introducing the raspberry industry, with its two fruiting seasons, perfectly bridges the cycles of strawberries and flat peaches, achieving a 'fruit all seasons, output all year' planting pattern."
Leveraging industry-university-research cooperation with Northwest A&F University, Xiaolei Village is driving the raspberry industry towards standardization and scale. After full-scale planting at the base, through seedling propagation and fresh fruit sales, it is expected to increase village collective income by over 1 million yuan annually.
The small berry from the wild hills has become a "golden fruit" activating rural development vitality.
The strategically arranged specialty planting and breeding projects are strengthening the foundation of Yao County's rural industries.
If specialty fruit and vegetable cultivation is the foundation for enriching the people through agriculture in Yao County, then agricultural science and innovation is the hardcore confidence driving Yao County's agricultural breakthroughs and global connectivity.
Building on years of fruit cultivation experience and continuous innovation, Yao County's agriculture is now reaching overseas markets along the "Belt and Road," allowing "Chinese seedlings" and "Chinese technology" to take root, blossom, and bear fruit abroad.
In 2024, 6,000 green rootstock seedlings set out from Yao County to the SCO Agricultural Base in Syrdarya Region, Uzbekistan, embarking on transnational cultivation.
"Uzbekistan's local conditions feature high summer temperatures, drought, and poor soil, making natural cultivation conditions harsh," recalled Lu Jianyi, an agricultural technician who traveled overseas to provide technical guidance.
"When we first transported the seedlings there, the locals were skeptical. They didn't expect our Yao County seedlings to be so resilient."
In May of this year, Lu Jianyi, who had just returned from Uzbekistan, brought good news. After enduring three years of extreme climate tests, the survival rate of the green rootstock seedlings in the overseas demonstration garden reached a high 98%.
Through cultivation management, the number of branches on the seedlings increased significantly, the flowering plant rate reached 100%, and the fruit-setting performance per plant was impressive, with the yield per mu expected to reach 3,000 jin this autumn.
Liang Yuxin, Deputy Minister of the Marketing Department of Shaanxi Zhaojin Xianheng Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd., stated, "With the deepening of standardized management, it is estimated that by 2027 to 2028, the yield per mu of green rootstock apples in the Uzbekistan SCO garden is expected to reach 2,500 to 4,000 kilograms, representing a 2 to 3-fold increase compared to the yield of local traditional orchards."
The green rootstock is the world's first apomictic dwarfing rootstock for apples, hailed as the "Chinese root" of the apple industry.
Relying on the technical support of Qingdao Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Xianheng Agricultural Technology has successively dispatched groups of local Yao County fruit growers and technicians to Central Asia.
Overcoming language, environmental, and other challenges, they have promoted the complete implementation of green rootstock apple seedlings and the accompanying "H1358 Early Fruiting, High-Quality, High-Yield Integrated Management Technology" in Uzbekistan, providing a vivid example of Yao County's agricultural technology going global.
From seedling export to technical assistance, "Chinese technology" is breaking foreign technological monopolies, creating a replicable and promotable model of agricultural cooperation, and becoming a shining example of China-Uzbekistan agricultural exchange and SCO agricultural cooperation.
Multiple points of success strengthen the foundation, and internal-external linkages expand the pattern.
From greenhouse fruits broadening the path to prosperity, to specialty planting perfecting the industrial system, and then to hardcore technology setting sail overseas, Yao County is rooted in the essence of agriculture, firmly grasping the tool of science and technology.
Internally, it meticulously cultivates specialty industries and solidifies the rural foundation. Externally, it exports agricultural technology and deepens international cooperation.
The agricultural development model has transformed from traditional single-crop cultivation to the diversified, integrated development of "planting and picking + improved variety cultivation + technical guidance," connecting the complete thread of Yao County's high-quality development of modern agriculture.
There is harvest in the fields, vitality in the industries, and hope in the villages.
Yao County continues to deeply explore its agricultural resource advantages, strengthen empowerment through technology, extend the agricultural industry chain, and deepen domestic and international agricultural exchange and cooperation.
It drives mass income growth and rural transformation through industrial prosperity, allowing the fruits of modern agriculture to benefit thousands of households, writing a new chapter of comprehensive rural revitalization across the fertile plains.
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