Reporter chen yong-yi, intern chen yu-ryun
Professor-level specialists often go deep into date-palms and are required to decipher the disease at the genetic level
(b) processing firms are nervously overhauling production lines in preparation for the “crazy” 20 days of the annual pick-up period
The date-farmers travel almost daily to the date-palms, keeping an eye on the growth of the red-tree
In some villages, the collective economy and the red-tree industry are heavily tied and pre-arranged
I'm sorry
In september, it will be ready to mature as one of the six geographical marker products in rey county. On the eve of the annual opera, journalists came to the town of yang, ryong county, to look closely at this particular industry and to learn about the "tan-tree-trees" journey promoted by the party council government, scientific research institutions, market subjects, and the general farming community。
The war against fragmentation
At noon on 14 august, the sun was hot。
In a date garden in chang village, the researcher, zhao ai ling, removed from the tree an already split tent: “look, with this crack, the date will be scrapped and it will fall on the ground in two days.” the red cracks on the maturing dates are particularly striking in the sun. The figs are the “sword of damocles”, which has been hanging over the heads of the local date farmers for many years。
"the sun's city has been raised twice in five years." the local saying that the date farmers face the bitterness of the figs。
In a date garden in yang city village, the secretary of the party branch of yang city was groaning at steel skeletons: “this is a former shed for protection against fissures, which cost a lot of money at the time, and as a result, the rags were worn out by the wind, and the fungus could not be prevented and abandoned for very long”
The 6-metre-high steel frame “silence” stands as a monument to the failure of the date-farmer and the sky. However, the heart disease of the date-farmer still exists, and at a critical stage of maturity a small rain is enough to allow the horticulture of red-treed dates to become full of fissures, even with no grain in the event of severeness。
Zhao aileen came for the figs. As a scientist in the identification of date-based resources of the national system of technology for peaches industries and in the creation of a new field of combat with a team in the town of yang three years ago. Local date farmers finally received strong support。
“this is the date number one we planted, the fruit and meat of which are incorruptible; that's the date number two, which is characterized by late maturity and protection from the rain. They all reach the final review of the species." her tone is very light, and her new branches are filled with green fruit and are extremely strong。
Over the past three years, experts have chosen the mutated mother to breed and have continued to observe research. Sweat drops, and two new types of anti-fissile surfaces emerge: the date number 1 builds a physical defence line with the body plate of dunton. – the flat-turned body, the tightness of the fruit, the reduction of the water intake and the reduction of the pressure on the bark, can be ripe for seven days; the date number 2 is a “wrong-peaker” who, by virtue of his excellent genes, delays maturity by 20 days and avoids the sharp edge of the rainy season。
The team of experts conducted an on-site study in which zhang zhenhua, the director of the zhang hing red-tree professional cooperative in rey county, listened closely with the staff, and then pulled the experts to a section of their cooperative to allow them to be examined in the context of their new management practices。
“our approach is mainly to apply nutrients, diets and water, and the effect of control of fibrosis is now evident.”
“the development of new varieties is the solution to the root causes of the fissures, and scientific management is, of course, also important, and the next step is to standardize management through the introduction of the technical instructions for the cultivation of land-breeding”
I'm sorry
At midday's date garden, the date farmer followed the expert to ask for technical details. The experts entered the land with data, and the date farmers took advantage of the experience to feed scientific research, and when the experts ' theory and the wisdom of the date farmers met under the date trees, the two-way movement was reshaping the new future of the plantation industry。
"crazy" 20 days
Every year after september, the string in the heart of the town and the farmer of the day is tightened。
The maturity date harvest period for the cantonment generally lasted 20 days. During these 20 days, the date farmers will have to pick and sell all the dates, the processing companies will have to digest the local and even the south qingbao of the yellow river, and customers from zhejiang, fujian and shandong will have to complete the whole acquisition, packaging and transport process。
In the 20 days of this "crazy" town, people's cars in the town of yang trade their palms to the point where they need traffic police
The number is even larger with the capacity of henan lingbao. How do you digest the power of a swollen fresh date in just 20 days? The country is experiencing a quiet and profound transformation。
In rey town county, the director, song tianqiao, is planning to quickly overhaul the production line, and every moment is valuable and cannot be delayed in seconds。
The automatic production line for the purple palms in his finger shop, which he introduced in 2019, the iron army --
The fresh dates were immersed in hot water at 70 degrees celsius for one minute, in red at once; then sent into a boiling bath at 100 degrees celsius for four and a half minutes, then matured to eight; then entered the "baking mode", baked, fermented, baked and referred... Repeatedly four or five times, fresh red dates were curdled into black, thin, fine-grained purple dates that eventually sold far south-east coastal cities and exported to south-east asia。
This production line alone can swallow 50,000 kg of fresh dates a day, yielding 20,000 kg of finished products, four or five times more efficient than traditional fumigation dates. “we only need nine people to run the production line, while traditional processing methods require 100 people to achieve our production.” song tiantai says。
Not far from the site, there was a smoked date plaster, which was divided into pieces and laid with barbed wire. When the date is smoked, the wood cracks in the pits beneath the puddles, and the smoke blows; the teachers control the fire with experience and repeat processes similar to automated production lines with the hands of dozens of workers: colour change, cooking, baking, fermenting... But when the manpower ends, the efficiency of the machine, not to mention the stability of quality。
Every existence must have its reasons. At present, there are five automated production lines of purple dates in the town of yang, which, even with full power, last 24 hours, will absorb only one third of the local fresh date production capacity in one harvest season, and the remaining two thirds will still need to be caught in smoke in the smoke of the date palms, relying on countless hands to complete the original transformation from branch to market。
Yao feng, the head of the sanctuary professional co-operative after 800, built on the local tradition of “varnished meals” by choosing red-coloured, high-quality fresh dates, each of which was packed in a vacuum, and which, after high-temperature fungus, became so. Last year's inventory was unsealed and tasted fresh, as if it had solidified the light that had just left the branch. His products were also on the eastern wind of the “oriental selection” and the “photo with fai”, which sold all the dates immediately。
Today, the cooperative produces 50 tons of dates per year, mainly in high-end markets, with airports and tea buildings as the main consumer, and a kilo of dates sold to $30。
The problem is the same for both purple and steam dates: the length of production is limited to 20 days of ripe date marketing, and large automated production lines are subject to cost-sharing difficulties, with most specialized equipment often left idle in long waits. Apart from the return cycle, the division of roles in the industrial chain is equally a concern. The vast majority of date-farmers earn only hard money, while firms can only earn $4,000 in processing fees for a ton of date-processing — more profits are part of the distribution chain。
Fortunately, the problem has attracted the attention of the local party council, and some of the aspiring have begun to develop brands and channels, and industrial change is possible in the future — not only for the efficient transformation of fresh dates, but also for the greater value of the chain of industry on the land covered by the tree。
“link” collective economy
In yang town, red dates are not only the main source of income for local villagers, but also the “gold key” to the activation of the village's collective economy。
"it's not just hard to find people, it's not enough to keep up with the customer's "quick" demands!" at first glance, yao chun, secretary of the east wind village party and head of the village council, saw the pain in the industry. In 2022, the village group built up an automated sorting line with facilities such as cold storage, with a determined investment of more than 1 million yuan on the basis of its accumulated base。
This sorting line allows for the precise sorting of red dates by size, colour, degree of injury, even for dark diseases that cannot be seen in human eyes, and completely meets the need for quick, precise sorting。
“the key is to save a great deal of manpower, be more efficient than manual separation, and have guaranteed quality, which is core competitiveness.” yao chunsheng said that during the hot season of fresh dates, the line was running 24 hours a day, with 1. 5 to 2 tons per hour and a daily gain of nearly $20,000。
Considerable gains, combined with market demand and equipment over time, are now planning for another higher sorting line. There are currently six automated separation lines in yang town。
Compared to east wind village's “inputting equipment”, yang city's method is “modulation”。
In response to the ageing of date-farmers, land clearing and increasing the momentum of collective economic growth, yang yumura last year embedded village collective economic development more deeply in the red-tree industry through a model of “cooperative co-opting by party branches + land shifting”。
The village concentrated around 200 acres of dates and fields that the villagers were unable to manage, and the village collectively acquired agricultural machinery, laid 20,000 metres of spray belts and assigned a village cadre to special management. At present, hundreds of acres of wheat have been harvested, and the recovery of maize has grown well, and even more encouraging is the date-palms — large dates, dense results and harvests。
Last year, the collective economic income of yangcheng village was 300,000 yuan, and this year's target was mentioned as 500,000 yuan, with the new growth point of the tarmac date. “this year is the first year of land flow revenue, and we're all very motivated. The village group has now accounted for more than $300,000, plus the revenues from autumn grains and red-trees, and is confident that it will be achieved.” "how far can the collective economy go in our village? The red-tree industry is the key!"
The secretary-general of the yang towns party, wang yujian, said: “turkish dates are a characteristic industry of yang city and indeed rey city, with great potential for development. Next, we will continue to focus on making the best use of all research and development resources in order to promote the upgrading of industries. At the same time, it optimizes the layout of the industry, perfects the chain of industry, leaves more profits locally, so that date farmers, processing enterprises, channels and village groups can reap the dividends of industrial development.”
