A diehard farmer is taking on the desert
Print Edition
For Lu Guoyin, farming is an obsession that he carries wherever he goes, and his latest venture is out in the sandy land off China鈥檚 largest desert.
Lu, from central China鈥檚 Henan Province, arrived in Hotan in the northwest Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region for the first time in 2017, where he planted 50,000 apple trees.
Now, Lu manages more than 20 greenhouses at Yuye Village off the southern edge of the Taklimakan Desert, riding a wave of farming technology expansion that has brought fortune to the locals. Hotan has a relatively large population but a lack of arable land.
鈥淒ue to the bad natural environment, we promote greenhouse farming, which can bring higher value,鈥 said Qin Zhenhua, Party head of Yuye village.
The village now has 420 greenhouses and 93 orchards, which are open for tourists to visit and pick fruits.
Last year, the annual average income of villagers was more than 7,500 yuan (US$1,092) and that is expected to grow by another 10 percent this year.
鈥楽cientific guardians鈥
Ren Jinqi, a villager, rakes in around 30,000 yuan to 40,000 yuan each year by exploring cultivation methods that increased the productivity of the greenhouses.
Skills and technology like this have been important for the villagers to increase their income, said Qin.
鈥淚 want to create a team of 鈥榮cientific guardians鈥 for the village, with both experts and farmers on board,鈥 he said.
Two of the difficulties of farming in the sandy area are sandstorms and heat. Seedlings are extremely vulnerable to such an environment.
In 2018, the village teamed up with the local sandstorm control branch of the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography under the Chinese Academy of Sciences to develop solutions for controlling sandstorms and introducing new, resistant varieties of seedlings.
鈥淧eople have been battling against the desert and poverty here for a long time,鈥 said Zeng Fanjiang, head of the branch. 鈥淲e want to explore a sustainable path for development here, one that can be promoted elsewhere.鈥
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