In recent years, fruit corn, which can be eaten directly without boiling, has gained more and more consumers' favor due to its unique taste and nutritional value. What is less known is that most of this type of fruit corn comes from other provinces. Xu Wendong, the person in charge of Ningxia Anpin Luyuan Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd., finally successfully planted fruit corn in Helan County after two years of trial planting and paid hundreds of thousands of yuan of "tuition", and recently rushed to the "fresh" market.
Walking into the fruit corn planting base of Zhangliang Village, Changxin Township, Helan County, as far as the eye can see, the continuous fruit corn grows gratifyingly, in rows and columns, standing proudly and fruitfully, breaking off a corn cob, peeling off the emerald green coat, the golden, milky white corn kernels come into view, take a bite gently, fresh and tender juice, crisp and sweet without residue. "We grow corn with gold and silver fruits, which have a relatively high sugar content." Xu Wendong introduced: "Gold and silver two-color fruit corn can be eaten raw, soup, juice and other ways to eat, in Guangdong is one of the must-have foods for local people's breakfast. ”
"In 2022, we planted 120 acres in Languang Village, Ligang Town, and we had no experience at that time, so we all used the local feed corn planting method - spot seeding, and the seedling emergence rate was only 60%, and the height was different. Coupled with the extensive management of the field, the situation is not optimistic after the corn matures. When it comes to the first year of trial planting, Xu Wendong shook his head frequently, "Our biggest problem now is that in terms of water and fertilizer and pest control, we are all planted in accordance with the traditional planting method, so its pests and diseases have not been well controlled, so it was wiped out in the first year." ”
Although the first year of trial failed, Xu Wendong was not reconciled. In the spring of 2023, he went to Jinchang and Wuwei in Gansu Province to inspect and found the reason for the failure - the sowing method and water and fertilizer management were too "rough". This time, he borrowed from the cultivation method of chili peppers, first raising seedlings and then transplanting, intensively cultivating. In order to solve the problem of water and fertilizer management, he also learned from a teacher on the Internet, and a fruit and corn special fertilizer production enterprise in Xinjiang learned about his needs and sent an agronomist to Nanjing for guidance.
Xu Wendong, head of Ningxia Anpin Luyuan Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd.: "Last year, we managed fruit corn as a cash crop through the adjustment of the water and fertilizer program, planted 120 acres, and the economic benefits reached 80,000 yuan. After this series of commissioning, we have a lot of experience in planting fruit corn this year, and we have communicated with farmers in Gansu, so this year we have completely separated from the feed corn planting program, and we have upgraded the control of pests and diseases to the fruit level. ”
Through his own efforts, coupled with the short planting cycle, high economic benefits and sweet taste of fruit corn, Xu Wendong was favored by consumers, and Xu Wendong finally ushered in the sweet harvest brought to him by fruit corn. This year, Xu Wendong has confidence, the company planted 650 acres, and drove the surrounding farmers to plant 600 acres. He introduced that in order to ensure the quality of fruit corn, the base adopts the "one plant and one ear" planting model, and each corn plant only retains the fullest corn cob. Through reasonable dense planting and fine management, the base is planted with about 4,100 fruit corn plants per mu, with a gross income of 5,000 yuan and a net profit of about 2,000 yuan. "We have signed agreements with farmers to provide them with technical guidance, and as long as they grow in our way, they can underwrite the sales." Xu Wendong said that compared with the traditional point planting, the corn cobs produced by the new way weigh about 1.3 catties each, and one mu of land can be sold for about 2,000 yuan more, and the benefits are considerable.
"This year, we have successfully planted fruit corn, signed an order with Hong Kong, signed an order for 450 acres with Ningxia Quannong Company, and developed a total of 1,100 acres for surrounding farmers. Mainly go to the South China market, such as Shanghai, Hangzhou, Wuxi, etc., this year we have cooperated with the villagers of Lanfeng Village for more than 300 acres, and now the amount of harvest on both sides of the day should be about 150,000 catties - 180,000 catties. Xu Wendong introduced.
Today, fruit corn has not only become a new bright spot for the local people to increase their income and get rich, but also injected new vitality into rural revitalization and industrial development. At present, the company has formed an operation model of "enterprise + cooperative + farmer", which has driven the employment and income of surrounding villagers and helped the high-quality development of rural revitalization. In addition to gold and silver fruit corn, the base also planted other varieties of fruit corn at staggered peaks, which will be marketed from mid-July to mid-September. "Don't worry about selling! Before we started planting, we received an order for 650 acres in Guangdong. Xu Wendong said that next year, he has a "big plan" - to plant 5,000 acres of fruit corn, and expand the cultivation of fruit corn to other counties (districts) in the region and neighboring provinces (regions) such as Inner Mongolia, so that more people can taste high-quality fresh fruit corn.
"Next, we will operate with Chaotian pepper and fruit corn as a dual industry, mainly for stubble. After the stubble is conducive to the benign development of the two industries, next year, we will sign an order with the upstream company and the market for fruit corn is expected to be about 5,000 acres. Xu Wendong said.