Chengxian County, Gansu Province: Small Corn Transforms into a Rich “Golden Grain”

At present, the fruit and corn in Chenjiazhuang Village, Wangmo Town, Chengxian County, Gansu Province are ripe and on the market. Tourists and farmers who come to experience picking are busy picking in the fields, filled with the joy of harvest everywhere.

Since this year, Chenjiazhuang Village, Wangmo Town, based on the local reality, has explored a new model of strengthening the village and enriching the people through industry, guided Dakang Planting Professional Cooperative to focus on fruit and corn planting, supplemented by Hemerocallis citrina, pepper, tomato and other characteristic Vegetable farming, vigorously promoted rural picking tourism, and let more villagers become rich through the development of characteristic industries.

Fruit corn is fresh, tender, juicy, sweet, and delicious. Compared with ordinary corn, it has a shorter planting cycle, less investment, and good sales, which is deeply loved by consumers. “Zhao Gensheng, the head of Dakang Planting Professional Cooperative in Wangmo Town, said.

Fruit corn is an improved variety of corn that is rich in fiber and has effects such as moistening the intestines and lungs, strengthening the spleen and stomach, and relieving cough. It has high nutritional and medicinal value. In March of this year, the Dakang Planting Professional Cooperative discovered a vast “money” landscape for fruit and corn through inspections in Lanzhou, Baiyin, and other places. Therefore, it took the lead in introducing 100 acres and has now gradually matured and listed.

We sowed in early April and matured in early July. We harvested about 3600 crops per acre, with a market price of 2 yuan per acre. The output value per acre can reach over 7000 yuan. In August, after preparing the land, we planted another crop of autumn and winter vegetables. Over the course of the year, the income per acre can reach over 10000 yuan, “Zhao Gensheng said.

Developing fruit and corn cultivation is an attempt by Dakang Cooperative to adjust the planting structure and achieve a transformation of agricultural characteristic planting from “singularity” to “diversification”, and from “good land cultivation” to “good land sales”. In addition to obtaining land rental income through land transfer, the masses can also increase their income by working in cooperatives.

I am already in my fifties this year, and there are two elderly people in my family who need to be taken care of. Helping with farming here, I am not tired, but also able to take care of my family. I earn over 80 yuan a day and over 10000 yuan per year. I am very satisfied, “said Yao Yonghu, a villager in the village. As the cooperative is active all year round, more than 100 households from Chenjiazhuang Village and neighboring villages have chosen to work here.

It is reported that the cooperative employs over 5000 people annually and pays over 300000 yuan in labor wages alone, providing a guarantee for local residents to increase their income by working at their doorstep.

The cultivation of fruit and corn is just a microcosm of the development of characteristic industries in Wangmo Town, Chengxian County. The town aims to create an “ecological new king mill and a health and wellness reception hall”. Based on the advantages of ecological resources and market demand, it has established 44 professional cooperatives and 11 family farms, vigorously developing the cultivation of characteristic agricultural products such as walnuts, traditional Chinese medicine, order chili peppers, and pepper. This has driven the development of rural leisure tourism, picking experience tourism, agricultural sightseeing tourism, and other agricultural tourism industries. The per capita income of the town’s characteristic industries has exceeded 1200 yuan, We have achieved the development goal of improving the quality and efficiency of the agricultural industry, and continuously increasing people’s income and wealth.

According to the overall idea of ‘industry priority, park guidance, policy support, and subject driven’, efforts have been made to cultivate regional characteristic industries and local characteristic products around the development of agricultural characteristic industries, expand planting scale, cultivate and strengthen leading enterprises, effectively expand and strengthen the advantageous characteristic industries in Chengdu County, and effectively promote the adjustment of agricultural industry structure and improvement of quality and efficiency, “said the person in charge of the Agriculture and Rural Bureau of Chengdu County.