In the 20,000-hectare jujube forest in Leling, Dezhou, Chen Xiling is busy pruning jujube trees. The wheat intercropped with jujube trees around him has turned green.
Laoling is the most famous jujube town in China and the world. As early as 2015, the Leling Jujube Forest Complex System was selected in the third batch of important agricultural cultural heritages in China, and successfully entered the preparatory list of globally important agricultural cultural heritages in 2018.
At present, Leling has an area of 20,000 hectares of jujube forest, with an annual output of nearly 200 million kilograms. Among them, there are more than 3,800 ancient jujube trees over 1,000 years old, and more than 10,000 ancient jujube trees over 500 years old. Thousand year-old jujube trees are still flourishing and bearing fruit every year.
"In 2006, nearly 70,000 hectares of cultivated land in Leling were all intercropped with jujube and grain, combining the traditional agriculture with large-scale industrialization," Wang Jixia, director of Leling Agricultural Comprehensive Service Center, said.
Today, Leling jujube farmers also mix jujube trees, apricot trees and pepper trees, and at the same time raise poultry under the trees. Not only wheat, corn and other food crops can be intercropped under the canopy, but also Chinese herbal medicines, peony, rape and even edible fungi with a higher value can be planted.
On the morning of March 4th, Zhou Zhijun, a member of the Jujube Forest Management Team was busy talking with the jujube farmers in the village. At present, the golden jujube trees have entered a critical period of pruning and shaping and spring management. On this day, five doctoral S&T technicians of "Dezhou Jinsixiaozao Industry Service Group" from the Shandong Innovation and Entrepreneurship Community delivered a talk on the key technologies of jujube spring management to the growing base.
From formulating the planning and management methods for the protection and development of ancient jujube forests, to setting up a jujube forest management team, and then training the farmers, Leling constantly explores the protection of ancient jujube trees and their cultural heritage. Under the development concept of "global protection, integrated research and development, industrialized operation and brand marketing", increasing farmers' income and sustainable development of agriculture can be effectively resolved.
"We will transfer 1,000 hectares of jujube forest in the core planting area to state-owned enterprises as a whole and implement corporate management. These jujube forests are divided into four areas and 124 grids. A management and protection company is established in each area, and a secretary with strong working ability is selected as the management and protection chief. At the same time, through the development of public welfare posts, the original jujube farmers will be turned into rangers, who are responsible for each grid, and the transformation from passive supervision by the masses to active supervision will be realized."
Sun Yugui, secretary of the Party Committee of Zhuji Town, Leling City, said that the jujube forest enterprises gave the jujube farmers a guaranteed fee and paid dividends according to the specific income at the end of the year, so the cooperatives and jujube farmers could maximize their income.
In 2019, Leling successfully built a provincial-level modern agricultural industrial park based on the Millennium Jujube forest, and in 2020, it successfully declared a national-level characteristic agricultural product advantage zone. In recent years, Leling has integrated the protection and development of the jujube forest system with modern agriculture, the construction of beautiful countryside, the construction of ecological civilization and the innovation of farmers' entrepreneurship, and the Millennium jujube forest is rejuvenating the times.
How to do a good job for the jujube industry? Through industrial upgrading, Leling actively cultivated deep processing enterprises in the jujube industry, and successfully combined together a whole modern jujube industrial chain integrating agricultural production and deep processing with small jujube.
"Our company was completed and put into production in 2012. It is a scientific and technological enterprise specializing in deep processing, research and the development and sales of jujube."
Liu Jianqiu, head of quality control R&D of Leling Derun Health Food Co., Ltd., told the reporter that Derun has been working step by step for more than a decade, from the initial single product of dried jujube preserves to more than a dozen series of products such as jujube-topped nuts, powdered jujubes and black jujube wine.
Nowadays, more than 400 jujube deep processing enterprises have mushroomed in the Jujube industry, and there are only 22 leading jujube deep processing enterprises. From planting, deep processing and sales, the annual output of dried fruits is 90 million kilograms, with an output value of 3.5 billion RMB. The complete whole industrial chain will "squeeze the jujubes" and gradually become the economic pillar of one party.
Every autumn, fruits are ready to be harvested, which is also the harvest season of the 20,000-hectare jujube forest in Leling. Strings of small jujubes are hung on the branches like agates, which is really beautiful. At this time, jujube farmers not only have to harvest, sun-dry and sell jujubes, but also are busy with tourism.
In recent years, Leling has dug deep into the rich jujube culture with a history of 3,000 years, combined the Millennium jujube culture with the local culture in Hebei and Shandong, and created a "double red" cultural tourism brand, attracting hundreds of thousands of tourists every year.
In 2018, the "China Shandong Laoling Farmers' Painting Exhibition" opened in Macau Science, Education and Culture Center, with a total of 90 paintings by 14 Laoling farmers. The artworks are full of jujube vibes and are all made by local farmers, attracting many young people and citizens from Macao to visit. While making the cultural industry bigger and stronger, the Millennium Jujube culture is also going strong step by step.