Kiwifruit leads to rural revitalization in Tibet

Seeing batches of kiwifruit being loaded into the truck, Zheng Tiancheng, head of the kiwifruit base, which is based in Xiachayu town, Chayu county, Tibet autonomous region, showed a happy smile on his face.

Being established in 2011, the kiwifruit base in Chayu county that is located in the deep valley of the transition zone between the Himalayas and Hengduan Mountains has led villagers to a path of wealth.

Zheng, 60, is from Ya'an, Sichuan province. He accidentally discovered that the unique climatic conditions and ecological endowments of Chayu may be suitable for the growth of kiwifruit, so he began to try to plant the fruit here.

In 2011, Zheng contracted 20 mu (1.3 hectares) of land to plant kiwifruit in Xiani village. It is not easy to grow kiwifruit in the plateau. Zheng plunged into the orchard almost every day, constantly exploring and caring for each seedling.

In 2015, the base harvested more than 5,000 kilograms of kiwifruit, which quickly sold out. In order to turn the fruit into a local industry, Zheng continued to expand the scale of planting, and patiently taught the villagers how to plant them.

Now Zheng's company has a kiwifruit planting scale of 1,050 mu. With the development of the kiwifruit industry, the channels for people to get rich have vastly expanded.

Since Zheng contracted the land at a price of 2,200 yuan ($302) per mu, which would supplement villagers 616,000 yuan. His base also hires local villagers, which also offered more than 300,000 yuan to villagers in 2021.

"The output of kiwifruit in the base is expected to exceed 250,000 kilograms this year. Calculated at an average price of 30 yuan ($4.1) per kilogram, the output value will reach more than 7.5 million yuan," said Zheng.

Chayu has given preferential policies and technological support to companies to develop the kiwifruit industry. At present, there are around 3,000 mu of kiwifruit and more than 620 households are involved in the industry.