Author: Xiong Yihan, little journalist of Travel & Leisure
I． Basic Information
Beginning in July 15th, joining the field study program held by Hanns Seidel foundation gives me an opportunity to contact with local people in Xichong and have insights about the strategies that are feasible to promote the local economy.
Based on the recent investigation including interview and field study in Xichong county, I have gained a primary understanding of the economic condition and the current developmental situation in this region. As a matter of fact, even though Xichong is currently underdeveloped, it has high development potential in several special local industries, such as organic fruit industry and tourism, which can be the major power to propel economic growth. If the policies and guidelines are made properly, Xichong will definitely become much prosperous through rapid development in agriculture and tourism. Therefore, the article mainly focuses on clarifying the current situation and discussing feasible methods to provide a developmental orientation of the county.
II． Current Situation in Xichong
According to my interviews of the town mayor and farmers, the fruit industry, especially peach, is one of the most crucial components of the local economy. Most of the farmers in Xichong have their own lands that are used to cultivate peach tree. Furthermore, they have developed their own species, Chongguo fragrant peach, which is well-known in surrounding areas. As a result, many farmers are extremely dependent on the peach industry, and some of the farmers have started their own business and performed well in cultivating fruits systematically and taking advantages of the interaction between animals and plants. For example, by keeping ducks in the orchard, the farmers can utilize them to fertilize the land, and the hills of clover not only promote aesthetics, but also effectively prevent the growth of weeds. There are also beehives scattered among the rows of fruit trees, generating additional economic income while also helping with pollination during the peach blossom blooming season. At the same time, however, the problem of unequal and insufficient development is evident. Of all the fruit tree growers, two or three occupy the vast majority of the market, with annual production of tens of thousands of tons or more. Some individual growers, however, have only a few tens or a few tons of production. In terms of sales channels, the larger growers are able to sell their products through e-commerce platforms as well as buy-backs from regular customers. Small farmers, however, can only sell their products through street peddling. In addition, large growers because of the huge scale of planting can use higher standards to mechanized planting, and small farmers have a considerable difference in quality of products, which further squeezed the market and survival space of some small farmers.
In addition to the fruit industry, the development of tourism is a promising development for the current county. Although the county is lacking in culture or famous attractions, this does not prevent the county from creating its own special tourism industry by adapting to local conditions. For example, by incorporating the local organic products industry into tourism, tourists can enjoy the high quality of local organic agricultural products while browsing the landscape. Such a tourism approach is more suitable for the current development of the county and its own conditions.
III． Ongoing Development
Through the interview with the mayor, I gained a deeper understanding of Xichong County and the Jinyuan community in particular. In collaboration with Hanns Seidel Stiftung, Xichong County has gradually figured out the right direction for its development. The highest priority is the implementation of guidelines on land consolidation and new rural development. The mayor mentioned that the motivation of the farmers in the jinyuan community to participate in the program played a crucial role in the smooth implementation of the rural land consolidation and the program of demolition of the old and construction of the new. Although there are still some residents who do not want to participate in the program for personal reasons, most of them are very positive about the program and even some of the villagers outside the program want to join it.
In terms of fruit industry, Xichong County is flourishing today. Although the level of development varies from farmer to farmer, overall the peach industry has gained an international reputation for some of these varieties, and some farmers are even able to sell their fruit to areas such as Southeast Asia. The mayor also brought up the decisive role of developing an e-commerce platform for the high-quality development of the fruit industry. Because of the special nature of the peach industry, the products need to be sold within a short period of time after ripening, and the local market is not enough to quickly digest the entire county's supply of peaches, so the existence of the e-commerce platform means that new markets can be opened up, giving farmers an extra layer of guaranteed income, and the past situation of having nowhere to sell peaches is gradually disappearing.
IV． Difficulties
The road to development does not happen overnight, and today's Xichong County is still facing heavy problems. As far as the rural population is concerned, the majority of young people have moved to the cities to look for jobs, so the rural labor force has not improved significantly compared to decades ago, but to some extent has regressed. At the same time, the issue of building a new countryside has been hampered by the fact that some of the owners of unused houses work in the city, which has hindered the preliminary discussions on demolishing the old and building the new. Moreover, some farmers are dissatisfied with the construction of the new countryside because their current houses are closer to the farming land, and their productive activities will be negatively affected if they are forced to build collective housing. At the same time, some farmers also hold old-fashioned ideas and are not willing to leave the place where their ancestors have lived for generations. When I was conducting a field study with my teammates and tutors, the interviewee, farmers who live in the new community, told us that some of them could not learn how to use modern facilities since they are much familiar with old facilities and they are mostly old people, which means that the cost of learning is high for them. Therefore, how to communicate more efficiently and resolve the problem with practical plans with these villagers who have opinions about the plan is still an urgent issue to be considered
Another part of the problem is that development in the local industries, fruit and vegetable, is not distributed equally and sometimes insufficient. For instance, during my interview of the local farmers, some of them claimed that their selling channel is fully developed, and nearly all kinds of their products can be sold within a few days after being ripped. However, other farmers who don’t have such mature system of farming and ways to sell their product still suffer in the circumstance that not so many customers are able to know their name, which results in the fact that most of the profit are generated by few top farmers with their professional facilities and enough workers to take care of their enterprises. Therefore, the local government has to establish policies focusing on eliminating income gap to change the current situation.
V． Possible Solution
Since the conversation with the local farmers are inspiring, thus, the report comes up with several solutions to the problems that Xichong county encounters.
Firstly, considering the large potential of the organic fruit and vegetable industry, the future of Xichong’s economy is promising. The form of collaboration organization is one of the most efficient solutions because it can partially resolve the conflicting phenomenon that the development among all the local farmers is extremely differentiated. Thus, the existence of the organization can somehow reduce the gap by teaching agricultural techniques and standardized farming. These methods will guarantee the quality of their products and the selling prices are equal. In addition, the current structure of e-commerce platform should be changed to adapt to the demand of low-income farmers. Due to their circumstances, few of advertising methods can be adopted. As a result, many of them have problems of selling their products. Therefore, building a new platform that unify all the farmers with clear standard is an urgency.
Secondly, as the evidence is clear that some of the farmers are reluctant to live in the new house, allowance and services like providing rent discount or free houses during the construction are necessary. Also, concerning that farmers who are bothered by their nostalgia and willingness to stay close to their ancestors’ grave, it is important to construct a new graveyard to compensate. In addition, according to the statement made by vice county mayor, farmers who are not covered by the current policies yet are eager to be a part of the project. As a result, the priority is to suggest the local government to expand the domain of this project in order to benefit people and achieve country revitalization. If all these things are done, it will be much easier to coordinate with the farmers.
Finally, cooperating with other counties in Xichong so as to develop local tourism is crucial to the local economic growth. The tourism resources in one county may not be attractive to travelers outside Nanchong city. For example, when we went through tourism spots in Xichong, we found that few of them are attractive enough, like the house of the Wangs and reservoir. In contrast, the peach museum is totally a failure because only in certain months tourists can visit it, and in the rest of the year, it is a boring place that has nothing to look at. However, if counties start to cooperate with others to create a brand new tour route which absorbs advantages from all the counties, it will be much easier to publicize and advertise local tourism in a larger range.
VI． Special Acknowledgement
During the whole study experience, I would like to sincerely thank the opportunity provided by Hanns Seidel Foundation that allowed me to have contact with the local officials and farmers to complete my field study. Also, the members foundation, especially Dr. Claus, gave lectures that are crucial to comprehend the mechanism and methodology of country revitalization. In addition, Dr. Cao, the professor in XJTLU, also provides some precious advices and help in improving the quality of this report. Our guide, Fengfeng, also contributed a lot when he arranged the whole schedule for us. My mom also played a crucial role in the whole study because it is she who brought me to Xichong county and make me able to have a realistic view of modern country development. Finally, thanks all of the people who helped me finishing the research and writing this report.
