Life's a peach for the award-winning growers of Qingcun Town
By Pan Zheng |
August 24, 2009, Monday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
FROM June to September it's the season of the yellow peach, one of the special local products of Qingcun Town in Shanghai's Fengxian District.
In an annual tradition, the local government in Qingcun helps peach farmers celebrate their harvest by holding a contest for the best peach.
This year's winner from 1,200 peaches of 40 contestants was a yellow peach grown by Wang Shoujun of Jinwang Village. The winner was decided by experts according to several criteria including appearance, size and taste.
The contest is an example of how the government supports local agriculture - at the awards ceremony two big enterprises in Qingcun Town signed group purchasing contracts with peach growers.
It was not the only big event in Qingcun - on the same day, Qingcun was honored as a "National Excellent Scientific Village;" the Shanghai Yellow Peach Technology Federation was established; Fengxian yellow peaches were named a "National Good-Quality Product" and got a "green food" label by the national administration.
Thanks to modern agricultural technology, Qingcun has gained a bumper harvest this summer.
Fengxian's yellow peach was cultivated by the Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Science (SAAS), with the aim of producing a fruit "round, big, yellow and sweet" and making a peach that tasted as good as it looked.
Located near the riverside and close to the East China Sea, Qingcun Town has fertile land and a maritime climate, making it eminently suitable for growing yellow peaches.
In the late 1960s, villagers began to plant yellow peaches for the canned fruit industry. In the 1980s, SAAS cultivated a new variety named "Jinxiu."
The first harvest was extremely satisfactory with a bountiful crop of good-quality fruit. The fruit also commanded a good price and it soon gained a firm foothold in Qingcun, and later became an important source of income for many local farmers.
To promote yellow peach planting, from the mid 1990s Qingcun began to cooperate with SAAS and, in 2005, SAAS established a model base of yellow peach production in the town. In 2006, SAAS established a research and development center with Fengxian District's agricultural committee. SAAS has also built an experimental base in Fengxian.
The local agricultural committee is also helping growers improve their skills as well as the quality of their peaches. Agricultural experts can offer a door-to-door consulting service and they are invited to hold regular training courses.
Marketing is a very important part of the industry and the local government has been paying attention to this too. From this year, the Qingcun government began to help farmers establish direct communication with clients, as well as promote their peach products to the public.
Today, the town has a peach planting area of over 650 hectares and annual production is about 10,000 tons, earning Qingcun the accolade "hometown of Chinese yellow peach."
In an annual tradition, the local government in Qingcun helps peach farmers celebrate their harvest by holding a contest for the best peach.
This year's winner from 1,200 peaches of 40 contestants was a yellow peach grown by Wang Shoujun of Jinwang Village. The winner was decided by experts according to several criteria including appearance, size and taste.
The contest is an example of how the government supports local agriculture - at the awards ceremony two big enterprises in Qingcun Town signed group purchasing contracts with peach growers.
It was not the only big event in Qingcun - on the same day, Qingcun was honored as a "National Excellent Scientific Village;" the Shanghai Yellow Peach Technology Federation was established; Fengxian yellow peaches were named a "National Good-Quality Product" and got a "green food" label by the national administration.
Thanks to modern agricultural technology, Qingcun has gained a bumper harvest this summer.
Fengxian's yellow peach was cultivated by the Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Science (SAAS), with the aim of producing a fruit "round, big, yellow and sweet" and making a peach that tasted as good as it looked.
Located near the riverside and close to the East China Sea, Qingcun Town has fertile land and a maritime climate, making it eminently suitable for growing yellow peaches.
In the late 1960s, villagers began to plant yellow peaches for the canned fruit industry. In the 1980s, SAAS cultivated a new variety named "Jinxiu."
The first harvest was extremely satisfactory with a bountiful crop of good-quality fruit. The fruit also commanded a good price and it soon gained a firm foothold in Qingcun, and later became an important source of income for many local farmers.
To promote yellow peach planting, from the mid 1990s Qingcun began to cooperate with SAAS and, in 2005, SAAS established a model base of yellow peach production in the town. In 2006, SAAS established a research and development center with Fengxian District's agricultural committee. SAAS has also built an experimental base in Fengxian.
The local agricultural committee is also helping growers improve their skills as well as the quality of their peaches. Agricultural experts can offer a door-to-door consulting service and they are invited to hold regular training courses.
Marketing is a very important part of the industry and the local government has been paying attention to this too. From this year, the Qingcun government began to help farmers establish direct communication with clients, as well as promote their peach products to the public.
Today, the town has a peach planting area of over 650 hectares and annual production is about 10,000 tons, earning Qingcun the accolade "hometown of Chinese yellow peach."
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