Grapes fill the pockets of Xifeng residents

A distant view of the grape vines in Xifeng, a county-level city in Southwest China's Guizhou province. [Photo/xifeng.gov.cn]

Along the winding asphalt road of Xifeng's Panjiaoying village, greenhouses are arranged in tidy and orderly rows. Inside, fruit farmers are busy taking care of the green grape vines to ensure a harvest in a few months' time.

"We have recruited 80 local farmers, eight of whom are registered impoverished people," said Tang Zhonggui, an official at Xifeng Agricultural Investment Co. "We pay them at 10 yuan ($1.5) per hour to trim the grape vines, and workers who install irrigation facilities earn 20 yuan per hour. And if they are able to use big machines such as excavators, they will gain a higher wage of 30 yuan per hour," he added.

The company has invested more than 11 million yuan in Panjiaoying village and Hongyan village, renting 26.67 hectares of land to plant grapes and passion fruit.

The company is not alone. Several other enterprises have also made similar investments in Xifeng. Mrs Zhang, a hired fruit farmer from another company, said that the greenhouses boast many advantages that open-air planting doesn't have; for example, heating-up at a faster speed, and smaller temperature differences between day and night, which contributes to early-maturing grapes with fewer pests or diseases.

Nowadays, Hongyan village is renowned for its "Hongyan grapes", which have been granted the title of "geographical indication product".

The village's per capita disposable income surged to 19,000 yuan in 2020.  Some 100 people have found employment in tourism-related businesses. The village received some 100,000 tourists in 2020 and its rural tourism revenue hit 70 million yuan.