Orchards bloom as 'barren' landscape blossoms

Cao Guiyuan has had a busy harvest season on her peach plantation in Central China's Hubei province.

The 34-year-old has done well to transform more than 200 hectares of barren land in Xinzhou district in the city of Wuhan into a vast and thriving peach plantation.

"With the higher temperatures and drier weather, the quality of the peach gum improves," Cao says. She adds that the continuous fair weather this summer has resulted in plump globs of peach gum, which can be processed into food products.

Over the past few days, her processing workshop has been running nonstop. Cao calculated that the amount of gum processed since June has doubled that of the same period last year. Batches of gum have been sold across the country and exported to Singapore, Malaysia and other countries.

However, her plantation was once a piece of barren land that few were willing to cultivate due to irrigation difficulties.

Cao, who used to run a fruit store, spotted an opportunity. Noting that peach trees, being drought-tolerant, seemed to thrive in this otherwise difficult soil, she decided in 2012 to start her own peach orchard.

"It usually takes a peach tree three years to bear fruit, and requires much work and investment in the early stage," Cao says.

Cao gradually mastered the techniques of peach tree cultivation and saw good results on her land. Meanwhile, she started mulling new ways to boost the wealth of local farmers, many of whom followed her example and planted peach trees on their own land.