A tarmac road strings out the "blueberry economy"

Nanjing, 13 Jun (Xinhua) -- Reporter Yang Shaogong

In midsummer, at two o'clock in the afternoon, the hottest time of the day in Stone Village. Steaming hot on the red soil, the temperature is close to 35 °C, and the bunches of blueberries are roasted from white and red to ripe blue.

"You wait for me for ten minutes, and I'll take the people to the front to pick them." Wang Changmi, a big blueberry grower, lifted a protective net to lead guests to the ground while smiling and greeting reporters.

"Fortunately, there is a wind today, and the guests will not be too hot." Looking back, he shrugged his stomach and wiped a handful of his calloused hands on his forehead and chatted with reporters.

200 acres of blueberries, 10 acres of bayberry, Wang Changmi is not the most planted in the village, but it is the best selling of agricultural products. It is in the early stage of listing that blueberries can sell for thirty or forty yuan a pound, and a pound of bayberry can sell for twenty yuan. It can be sold for a price, mainly by picking.

The arrival of pickers in large numbers has been a matter of nearly two years. Why did so many people from the city come to his land? Lao Wang snapped his fingers and looked at him happily, "To the east is Liyang City's Highway 1, to the west is the Shiyou Line, and to the north is the Liao You Line... Around my garden, it's all asphalt roads! ”

Baima Town, Lishui District, Nanjing Is a national "one village, one product" blueberry demonstration village and town, once a weak income village stone village to increase income early to develop blueberry planting.

Although in 2005, Nanjing realized the "village-to-village" cement road earlier in the country, but the density of the road network is insufficient, and most of the roads extending to the fields are sand and gravel dirt roads. Even if cement roads became popular later, they could not meet the needs of the villagers.

"After transporting blueberries, you know that the cement road is far worse than the asphalt road!" Lao Wang said that the asphalt road is relatively soft, the bumps are less, the cement road is too hard, and there is a expansion joint a few meters apart, and the wheels have to be turned upside down a few times. "Flip it up, my heart hurts!" Shipped out, good twenty-one pounds, bad five dollars a pound. ”

From sending goods out to bringing people in, the construction of asphalt roads has seen more guests in Lao Wang's field every day. "Drive down the highway and follow the asphalt road without much effort!" Ms. Sun from Changzhou said.

On weekends, a picking garden in Shizhai Village receives more than 200 people a day. In a year, the profit of 100 acres of land can exceed the income of a working class in Nanjing.

Significant income has driven the growth of blueberry acreage. Eighty percent of the thousands of farmers in the village are growing blueberries, and there are nearly 50 blueberry plantations of more than 50 mu, with an annual output of more than 2,000 tons of blueberries and fresh fruit sales of more than 55 million yuan.

Last year was the second year of the asphalt road, and 49 low-income farmers in Shizhai Village also achieved comprehensive poverty alleviation. The village's collective income has increased from less than 400,000 yuan four years ago to more than 1.5 million yuan last year.

Xu Guolin, secretary of the party branch of the Lishui District Highway Management Station, said that from 2015 to 2018, the Lishui District Transportation Bureau upgraded the rural roads in Baima Town, upgrading the original 3.5-meter-wide cement road to a two-lane four-level asphalt road of more than 6 meters. At present, there are 189 kilometers of rural roads in Baima Town, more than half of which are asphalt roads.

"The roads here are better than in my hometown! My dad said that farming should come to China! "The young man Max's father farmed in Germany, and after he studied abroad, he settled in Nanjing, and planted nearly 50 acres of organic blueberries in Shizhai Village. During the picking season, he would drive an electric car along the asphalt road to deliver the fruit to downtown Nanjing.

3 km village road, 8 km county road, 60 km highway... From Shizhai Village to the center of Nanjing, there is an endless stream of special agricultural planting bases such as blueberry orchards along the way. In the midst of traffic, the asphalt road has strung together a blue economic "necklace" that shines with hope for the revitalization of the countryside.