Pingyuan: Lush in a Drought

By staff reporter JIAO FENG

PINGYUAN Town of Yanshan County is on a piece of flat land surrounded by mountains 60 kilometers west of the seat of the Wenshan prefectural government. With 408,000 mu (15 mu = 1 hectare) of arable land it is something of an anomaly in the area according to Wang Qin, chief of the publicity department of the CPC Yanshan county committee: "It is rare to see such a large piece of flat land on the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, thus its name Pingyuan, which means 'flat and far'."

Ripe watermelons are weighed before being sent out for sale. Jiao Feng

While many places are suffering from drought, here in Pingyuan a brisk scene of growth unfolds. Seedlings in plastic film-covered greenhouses are flourishing in every direction, and farmers are busy loading a watermelon harvest onto waiting trucks. The watermelon field covers nearly 8,000 mu, mostly rented by farmers from other parts of the country. Zhang Dongmei, a native of Taizhou, Zhejiang Province, has been engaged in watermelon cultivation in Pingyuan for four years. In that time, her plot has expanded from 281 mu to 750 mu in 2010. Last year she netted an income of RMB 1.19 million from sales. "The climate here is particularly suitable for the plump and juicy fruit. Each year we have six harvests, and the watermelon output per mu reaches 6,000 kilograms," said Zhang Dongmei.

Zhang Dongmei told us that all the watermelon lands are now equipped with pipeline irrigation facilities. Although hit by a severe drought, her watermelon sprouts have survived by relying on the irrigation system. She demonstrated it for journalists. After opening the valve of the pipeline, it took 15 minutes to irrigate one field. She closed the valve, then irrigated another. The fields are irrigated once a week. Of the drought she said, "This one is very severe. In the past the biggest melon weighed about 10 kilograms, but this year the biggest only weighs six kilograms. Compared to others in this prefecture, who are suffering total crop failure, we are lucky."

The drought started in the autumn of last year and resulted in total crop failure for 80-90 percent of summer harvests. But in Pingyuan, the watermelon fields are still green, and the second harvest has started.

According to the locals, the transformation of medium- and low-yield farmland started in December 2001; the entire project covers 322,000 mu and requires an investment of RMB 347.8755 million. Up to now the government has covered up to the seventh stage, mainly involving the improvement of water conservancy facilities, building/renovating irrigation channels in the fields, and installing water-saving pipelines to form irrigation networks. This has increased the efficiency of water resources and reduced water waste. After the completion of this seventh stage, the pipeline irrigated area will reach 102,000 mu. A total of 14.22 million cubic meters of water will be conserved thanks to the system. "Pingyuan Town and surrounds are least affected by the drought," said Wang Qin.

While improving the water conservancy facilities, the local government has also invested in building roads into the fields, so that motor vehicles and farm machines can operate in the midst of the crops. Through transformation, small strips of land are linked to facilitate intensive farming at lower production costs.

Although the area is heavily hit by drought, increased irrigation in Zhang Dongmei's watermelon field does not actually increase the cost of bringing in a harvest. Opening the valves increases the number of melons on the vines, so she will recoup the cost of water with the third harvest of melons. A profit will be realized on the other harvests.