Bi’er Village develops navel orange industry

Baskets of fresh citrus fruit were sorted, packaged and transported to various parts of the country in Bi’er Village, Liye Town, Longshan County, Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture recently.

After more than 30 years of development, navel oranges have become a pillar industry to help villagers boost income.

In 1989, Mi Xianlie, a veteran, served as the Party secretary of Bi’er Village, and took the lead in planting navel oranges. In 1991, Newhall navel oranges were introduced, laying the foundation for the development of Bi’er navel oranges.

Later, Bi’er Village improved the quality of navel oranges and achieved large-scale production. Party members of the village learned about market information through remote education and promoted agricultural and sideline products. In 2017, current Party secretary Shi Yong led villagers to plant 500 mu (about 33.33 hectares) of navel oranges and sold them through the e-commerce platform, further increasing the sales channels of navel oranges and enhancing the product value.

Longshan County has a subtropical humid monsoon climate. Bi’er Village is located at the south of Longshan County, 100 kilometers away from the county seat and 5 kilometers away from Liye Town. It’s suitable to plant navel oranges with enough sunlight, and fertile soil. It has an annual precipitation of over 1,000 mm, a soil pH value of 5.5 to 6.5, and an average annual temperature of 18 to 22℃.

In recent years, Longshan County has vigorously developed the navel orange industry. Nowadays, the planting area of navel oranges in the whole county reaches 155,000 mu (about 10,333.33 hectares), with over 70,000 mu (about 4,666.67 hectares) in Liye Town. Bi’er Village has navel oranges of more than 7,000 mu (about 466.67 hectares), with an annual output of over 10 million kilograms and an output value exceeding 40 million yuan.

Xiangjiang New Area in Hunan Province has provided assistance to Liye Town, and has successively established a demonstration area for rural and industrial revitalization and a navel orange cultural square in Bi’er Village. It helped the village build industrial roads, improve irrigation facilities for the navel orange industry, and seek funds for the “quality improvement” of citrus. At present, every household grows navel oranges in Bi’er Village.

In addition, Xiangjiang New Area has also contributed to the significant long-term development of the navel orange industry in Bi’er Village. With the sour and sweet taste of Newhall navel oranges, the brand of “Liye Navel Oranges” has been established.

The navel oranges are sold through various ways like direct sales, online sales, and live streaming sales. Besides, some navel oranges are left on trees for two to three months to allow consumers to pick.

Bi’er Village has been rated as a national demonstration village of “One Village, One Product”. Navel oranges have become a pillar industry for villagers to increase income in Liye Town, and have been selected as national green food and geographical indication products.

In recent years, relying on ecological advantages, Longshan County has built boutique orchards, established 4 demonstration areas for quality improvement as well as 10 standardized production demonstration areas, and created ecological, green, and organic citrus bases.