Xinjiang is a famous hometown of fruits at home and abroad, and it is one of the six major fruit production belts in the world. Among all the characteristic fruits, grape is one of the most representative fruits with the longest cultivation history in Xinjiang. Xinjiang grapes are famous all over the country and even the world for their high sugar content, sweet taste, bright color, rich nutrition, excellent quality and rich variety resources.
Huocheng county is one of the main producing areas of red grapes in Xinjiang. In 2000, Mohur Ranch in this county was named as the "Hometown of Red Globe Grapes in China" by the Ministry of Agriculture, and it was the first professional town of Red Globe Grapes in Xinjiang. In 2002, it was awarded the qualification of pollution-free agricultural products in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, and was certified as an export base in 2009. At present, the county's grape planting area has reached more than 70,000 mu, forming the largest contiguous "red soil" grape planting area in China, and the grape industry has become one of the leading industries for farmers to increase their income and become rich.
Huocheng County faces Tianshan Mountain in the north and Yili River in the south. Flat terrain, mild and humid in winter and spring, dry and hot in summer, with 2700-3000 hours of sunshine all year round, rich light and heat resources, dry air and large temperature difference between day and night. The natural conditions in the plain area are very similar to those in California. It is a rare area suitable for planting red globe grapes.
Huocheng county has a long history of cultivating grapes, and the main varieties are seedless white, horse 0, baijiagan, red grape and black grape. In the 1990s, Huocheng County introduced "Red Earth" grapes from the United States. The produced grape not only has a sugar content 2.4% higher than that of the United States, but also has pure taste, bright color, crisp and hard flesh, thick peel, storage resistance and easy transportation. It shows good commerciality, is favored by the market, and is rapidly popularized in Huocheng County.
The development of Red Globe grape in Huocheng County has experienced a tortuous process. Since 1990, some farmers have tried to grow Red Globe grapes spontaneously. However, due to poor planting technology, small market sales and scattered, there has never been a climate. During the period of 1998, Li Baoshan, director of the village committee of the second village of Mohur Ranch, led five farmers to plant 80 mu of red globe grapes in the responsible field. After two years, the survival rate of grapes reached 98%, and good economic benefits were achieved. With the success of the trial planting of Hongti grape, more than 20 farmers in this village/KLOC-0 soon planted more than 2,000 mu of grapes. At the same time, Huocheng County has rapidly developed grape estates such as Cocodara, Yuancong, Jinshan, Jianzhong and Northwest Pearl. In 2003, the second village of Mohur Ranch 1300 mu of grapes entered the high-yield period, but in the ripening season, the merchants refused to buy them, because the growers blindly pursued the yield, but completely ignored the quality of the grapes, resulting in poor grape quality. In this way, piles of grapes rotted in the ground, and farmers' enthusiasm for planting grapes was seriously dampened, and they began to dig grapes to grow other crops. In order to support the fledgling grape industry, the relevant departments of Huocheng County hired grape planting experts from Chinese Academy of Sciences to provide farmers with technical training in time, teach farmers planting techniques and management essentials, and solve various difficulties and problems in production. Mohur Ranch has also issued a series of preferential policies, such as exempting the "three-mention and five-system", giving priority to selling watered seedlings on credit, coordinating and solving problems such as loans and fruit sales, and supporting the development of the grape industry.
In order to develop the grape industry into a leading industry for farmers and herdsmen to increase their income and get rich, Mohur Ranch established the "Xilongzhu" grape professional cooperative in September 2008 under the guidance of forestry, science and technology, supply and marketing, industry and commerce departments in Huocheng County. "Xilongzhu" grape professional cooperative organizes decentralized farmers to carry out standardized production and management. Under the guidance and support of government departments and the management of trade associations, fruit farmers consciously organize production in strict accordance with the operating rules of pollution-free production technology. The fruits produced are uniform in size, good in shape, bright in color and sweet in taste, and the quality of grapes is greatly improved. At the same time, the cooperative society issues unified trademarks to growers, sells grapes by OEM, and marks the number of growers on the trademarks. Once the problem is found, it can be traced back to the grower. This practice makes the grapes in Mocher Ranch take a substantial step towards the brand strategy. Cooperatives shall, in accordance with the requirements of standardization, unify management, technology, brand, packaging and sales. The reputation of "Xilongzhu" grapes is getting bigger and bigger, and the income of fruit farmers is getting better and better. By the end of 20 13, 30,000 tons of grapes were sold to foreign markets through cooperatives every year, accounting for 70% of the total red grapes in the county. The cooperative built a fresh-keeping warehouse to store 5,000 tons of grapes, and sold them out of season to keep them fresh, which increased profits. In 20 12, the "Xilongzhu" red grapes have been sold to coastal markets such as Guangdong and countries such as Myanmar, Vietnam and Chile, and the "Xilongzhu" professional cooperative has won the title of the top 50 cooperative in China.
The Forestry Bureau of Huocheng County and the Science and Technology Bureau jointly formulated the "Technical Specification for Cultivation of Red Grape in Huocheng County", which comprehensively popularized the techniques of fixing branches and ears, controlling yield, thinning flowers and fruits, bagging fruits to enhance color, and rationally using fertilizers and increasing sugar. With the popularization and application of these technologies, the commercial fruit rate of Hongti grape has increased from 60% to over 90%, and the whole process of grape production has been "marked".
On 20 12 9 16, Mocher Ranch held the first Grape Festival, which showed people the development achievements of the grape-based forest and fruit industry in this field for many years. At the same time, the farm lost no time in developing leisure sightseeing agricultural tourism to attract tourists from all directions.
At present, the Dragon Ball grape in Mohur West District of Huocheng County has won the title of national geographical indication of agricultural products, and the red grape in Huocheng County will move towards a broad national market.
Author: Chen Youming