Yan'an: Red Capital, Green Revolution

Green Industries

    Red China aims to go green, and that includes the banknotes as far as farmers are concerned. The conversion of grain plots is not simply a matter of increasing the green area; it must improve the livelihood of the local people, so that those who lost their land are not out of work. For proper afforestation, the shady side of mountain slopes are planted with timber forests, and the sunny side of mountain slopes are planted with economically valuable forests, such as apple, pear, chestnut, date and walnut trees. Apple trees were selected for Baota District and Ansai County, prickly ash for Yanchang and Yichuan counties, date trees for Yanchuan, and chestnut and walnut trees for Huanglong County. At present, Yan'an City's apple orchards cover 200,000 hectares, and their annual output exceeds 2 million tons. Over 80 percent of farm households have one or two industries generating stable incomes. Farmers' revenues have reached healthy levels thanks to the policy of returning grain plots to forests, ranking them among the highest earners in Shaanxi Province.

    Wang Yufu, aged 48, is a farmer from Houkongjiagou Village, Liulin Town, Baota District. His annual income exceeds RMB 200,000, earned from his new apple orchard, and this is three to four times the income of municipal officials. He told China Today that he used to live on grain farming and goat-herding, since most of the land was on mountain slopes. In 1986 the government mobilized farmers to convert those plots to fruit production. Many farmers were reluctant, but finally each household agreed to experiment on a small plot of 2-3 mu (15 mu = 1 hectare). The town government sent technicians to instruct farmers in orchard management. Five years later, the trees began to bear fruit. One tree can produce apples valued at more than RMB 100, a much higher return than grain crops produce; the latter's annual income averaged only RMB 200-300 per mu. In 1994, all the villagers gave up on grain crops and turned to apple orchards.

    Now, among the 40 households in Houkongjiagou Village, there are 13 households whose annual income exceeds RMB 200,000. These families have all sorts of conveniences such as home electric appliances, and more than 10 households have purchased private cars.

    Loss of farmland has not meant loss of work. On the contrary, jobs have been created for nearby farmers as well, since the application of orchard management requires a large number of laborers. According to Wang Yufu, his one-hectare apple orchard needs 10 helpers to apply fertilizer, thin flowers, pick the crop and bag the fruit.

Green Brands

    Developing the timber and high-return forests is only one aspect of the green revolution. By creating brands, Yan'an' s green industries have gained even greater benefits. Luochuan County under the jurisdiction of Yan'an City has the advantageous geographical conditions of abundant sunshine, heat and rainfall in the same season, a long frost-free season, and a great range in daily temperatures, all ideal for apple growth. After meeting the necessary marketing standards, the Luochuan apple was designated an official apple product for the Shanghai World Expo, Beijing Olympic Games and Guangzhou Asian Games. The fruit is also exported to the United States, Japan, Thailand and Indonesia. More than 70 years ago, the Japanese Air Force bombed Yan'an more than ten times, but today the apple juice project has a well-known Japanese investor: what Itochu Corporation has put into operation in Luochuan County has greatly increased the added value of its apples.

    Driving along the expressway to Luochuan, you can see a tall building in the shape of an apple under construction – the world apple trading center. The county has ambitions with respect to the global apple trade.

    Liulin Town is also building its own brand. According to Cao Yaxiong, mayor of Liulin Town, they have orchards of the fruit covering more than 3,000 hectares. Liulin Town is creating its Liulin Town Mountain Apple for the apple cooperative, and has applied for organic certification for its apple orchards, something that is bound to increase prices. The town's goal of developing gift apples, if successful, will mean one apple can fetch RMB 10, four to five times the price of a standard fruit.

    Grain plots conversion and fruit branding has increased the annual net income of Yan'an farmers by 20 percent. Seven counties (districts) have joined the ranks of the 100 economically strong counties in the west, and six counties have crowded into the top 10 in Shaanxi Province.

Green Energy

    A slogan greets you along the expressway not far from downtown Yan'an reading, "To get rich, raise apples and sows." It may be confusing to outsiders, but in fact, raising pigs and growing apples are part of an ecological-agricultural chain of pig-methane-vegetable, or pig-methane-fruit. Pig feces can be used to produce methane, which is used by farmers as fuel, and this can reduce the consumption of firewood. The biogas slurry can be used as fertilizer, and its residue as the organic fertilizer that underpins organic agriculture. "Raising pigs not only provides organic fertilizers for agricultural production, but also guarantees farmers a livelihood when natural disasters, such as frost and hailstones, destroy crops," Cao Yaxiong pointed out.

    By the end of last year, Yan'an City had invested RMB 439 million in the construction of 125,000 methane tanks, providing clean energy for 35 percent of its rural population. A family in the countryside can save two tons of coal annually by using biogas, and they don't need to go to the trouble of cutting firewood on the mountainsides for cook fires.

    Biomass energy development is one of the sunny spots of this region's new energy industrial strategy. As the first county to implement the policy of grain plot conversion to forests in 1999, Wuqi County converted 103,667 hectares of farmland, making it one of the trendsetters in this regard. Wuqi County's seabuckthorn crops have spread out over 133,333 hectares. In the past, the county invested copious working hours to pruning the tops and clipping the buds of seabuckthorn; now the cut branches are used for generating biomass energy.

    Huanglong County has 194,200 hectares of forests, with a growing stock of 7.427 million cubic meters and biomass stock of 180,000 tons. In addition to cornstalk and pruned tree branches, the county possesses a solid foundation for biomass energy projects. Both Wuqi and Huanglong cooperate with Wuhan Kaidi Electric Power Co., Ltd. on biomass electricity generation. When the resource conditions and technologies are ripe, they plan to develop liquid and solid biofuels, which are more efficient than converting biomass into electricity.

    Finally, Ansai County has advantages in solar energy resources. With annual sunshine clocking in at 2,379 hours and relative sunshine duration of 54-58 percent, the county supports a 60 megawatt photovoltaic power generation project from Jiangsu Green Power Photovoltaic Co., Ltd. The annual power output is 300 million kwh. Wuqi and Huanglong counties also plan on launching solar energy power generation projects to promote rooftop photovoltaic power generation, the integration of photovoltaic building, and photothermal applications. They aim to promote the diversification of utilization channels and the integration of industrial chain upstreams and downstreams.