Taiwan woman's small orchard harvests big hope in mainland

by Xinhua writers Fu Shuangqi and Lai Jianqiang

ZHANGZHOU, Fujian, May 6 (Xinhua) -- Luo Meijuan is
welcoming the first harvest season in her 2-hectare mulberry orchard where dark
purple, juicy fruit bends the branches all over the hill.

Her garden produces almost 1 tonne of mulberry fruits
every day in the month-long harvest season.

"When I first arrived, it was a deserted hill covered
by wild grass everywhere. No water and electricity," said the 57-year-old woman
who runs an agricultural technology firm in Taipei.

"I am so happy that things move ahead smoothly. This
is my first project in the mainland."

She opened the orchard two years ago inside an
investment park in the suburb of Zhangzhou city of southeastern Fujian Province,
which was designed to attract Taiwan agriculture projects.

The idea to set up such investment parks was first
put forward at the first Cross-Straits Economic and Trade Forum in 2006 as a
measure to promote economic cooperation between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan,
and introduce the island's advantaged agricultural business into the mainland.
Now there are 11 such parks in the mainland.

"The park provided some preferential policies for
small businesses like mine, such as tax cuts and free use of land. It is
attractive," she said.

There are two other projects of the same scale as Luo
and 68 bigger ones in the investment park.

"Here is a very good place for eco-friendly farms,"
Luo said. "Local farmers maintained the agricultural tradition very well. People
are willing to protect the land and water source for good farm produce instead
of building factories to earn more money."

Now her mulberry fruits are sold to supermarkets at
Zhangzhou city and two other nearby cities. But she said she was not here to
just grow fruits and sell them.

"Taiwan farmers did quite well in developing more
efficient and green agriculture. I plan to introduce our experience here," she
said.

Luo brought mulberry seedlings from Taiwan, as well
as new farming technologies and garden management. At first, she found a bit
difficult to communicate with the four local farmers she hired to help plant
mulberry trees.

"They have their own way of growing plants. They did
not like 'city people' like me to interfere in farming. They thought my method
was borrowed from books and would not fit in the reality," she said.

She put lots of effort into introducing new farming
methods and sometimes had to force them to adopt her way.

"I told them how important it was to test the water
quality, to use the least pesticide and to use organic fertilizer. Some time
later, they understood my way and we began to work together happily."

Speaking the same Minnan dialect with these farmers
also saved her some trouble.

"This is another reason that I put my first project
here. We have close cultural connections," she said. The origin of her family
can be traced to Anxi county in neighboring Quanzhou city, a one-and-a-half hour
drive from Zhangzhou.

When the busy harvest season ends, Luo and her
workers will begin picking tender leaves of mulberry trees, which can be made
into tea and are said to have soothing effects.

She also plans to collect the branches and roots and
sell them to drug stores as they can be made into traditional herb medicines.

She was quite confident of the future of her orchard,
which she called her "little experiment garden."

"There is still no electricity in my orchard but the
authorities say power supply will come soon," she said.

With the electricity, Luo will improve her orchard to
a tourist farm. Visitors from nearby cities can picnic here, drink fresh
mulberry juice, collect fruit in the harvest season and even adopt a tree in the
garden.

"I have to solve another problem. Fresh mulberry
fruit will rot within two days after being harvested," she said.

She has rented a cold store and is looking for a
local food-processing plant that can produce mulberry juice or fruit vinegar.

A small institute to develop processed mulberry foods
and an organic fertilizer plant are also in the works.

"I have already applied to the park for another piece
of land to build them.

"I am thinking that maybe I can run a small orchard
like this in the suburb of every big city in the mainland, growing mulberry or
any other local popular fruit and providing people a happy retreat from busy
city life."

Wearing a hat and gloves like other farmers in her
garden and walking easily on the narrow hill path, Luo said, "I have seen hope
here."