Government assistance apple of farmers' eyes

LUOCHUAN, Shaanxi - Farmers in Luochuan county, Shaanxi province, have become rich by using technology and services provided by the local government to increase their apple crop.

Zhang Yanmin, 36, a farmer in the county's Luoyang village, began planting apple trees in 1993 after graduating from junior middle school. He now enjoys a prosperous life.

"I got about 120,000 yuan ($18,855) from my nearly half-hectare apple orchard this year," Zhang said. "My apples sold well in the coastal provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, which businessmen came directly from to buy apples from my orchard."

Zhang said his attempts at apple farming had not gone smoothly at first. He was not familiar, he explained, with the technology he needed to make his work successful.

"In the first three years, I had to deal with pests, frost and hail and lost almost all of my investment in the orchard," Zhang said. "Then I had an opportunity to receive free training from the local government about technology that can be used to plant apple trees. I learned about various planting techniques that can be used in my orchard."

A year later, the quality of Zhang's orchard had improved greatly and the apples he grew there were selling well, bringing him about 100,000 yuan a year. With that money, Zhang's family has managed to move out of the artificial cave they had lived in and into a two-story building. They now enjoy the use of tap water, solar heating, a gas stove and a car.