Xinjiang farmer helps neighbors turn skills into income

BEIJING, Nov. 12, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- A news report from China Daily:

Zhang Xiying has helped 19 nearby farming households take up specialty crops, including flowers, figs and strawberries. This female farmer and agricultural technician in Urumqi county, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, offers free technical guidance and helps farmers find buyers for their produce.

In her greenhouses in Dongwan village, the work begins with a temperature check. Zhang then inspects the seedlings, looking at their growth and the color of their leaves. She teaches neighboring farmers to make similar observations and shows them how to care for unfamiliar crops.

She said strawberry plants normally produce a new leaf every seven days. Watching the leaves develop helps her assess the seedlings' condition. She also stressed the importance of raising strong seedlings with well-developed roots before flowering and fruiting.

"Come and have a look. Learn. The technical guidance is free," she tells them.

Farmers gather in a greenhouse to watch her demonstrations. She explains how to prepare soil for lilies, strawberries and other crops, working through the steps with them. Her advice also covers spotting potential pest problems and taking preventive measures, including biological pest control. She has trained several technicians who now teach other growers, she said.

The support extends beyond cultivation. "Selling is the biggest challenge for farmers," Zhang said. After encouraging households to grow cut flowers, she helped connect them with wholesalers at a flower market. She said those sales channels remain in place, with flowers distributed among the wholesalers.

For fruit, she combines pick-your-own sales with community group-buying and wholesale orders. Pick-your-own sales generally fetch higher prices than wholesale orders, she said, allowing growers to earn more from their crops.

Nearby ski resorts bring visitors to the area in winter. Zhang recalled receiving overseas tourists who tasted the strawberries and wanted to buy boxes to take away. Demand changes throughout the season: before Spring Festival, she said, visitors pick almost all the strawberries, while later sales require a mix of pick-your-own and wholesale distribution.

Zhang's path into greenhouse cultivation began with an apprenticeship at a flower company. After graduating from vocational high school, she worked as a farmer. When the company came to the area, she was struck by its female boss, who was close to her own age. Interested in growing flowers herself, Zhang joined the company to learn greenhouse cultivation.

"I learned skills there, but I felt that what I knew was far from enough," she said.

She attended further training courses on the growth cycles of flowers and fruit, pest management, and crops' requirements for soil and water. She later provided technical guidance to agricultural businesses. Zhang said she had spent 30 years in farming, including about 20 giving technical advice and 10 running her own business.

When she returned to her hometown to start her own business, she brought new varieties into her greenhouses for trials. Among them were lilies introduced from the Netherlands. She invited neighbors to see the crops and learn how to grow them before trying them themselves. The demonstrations gave farmers a chance to compare crops and discuss the techniques involved.

Her latest trials involve blueberries. Zhang said the spread of strawberry cultivation locally had prompted her to look for other crops that could offer farmers an additional source of income. She is testing both potted and in-ground cultivation, with the aim of reducing costs before promoting the crop more widely.

Water quality needs particular attention. Zhang said she tests and adjusts irrigation water because its pH and electrical conductivity are high. The former indicates how acidic or alkaline the water is, while the latter helps estimate dissolved salt levels. The plants' requirements also change as they move through the growing, flowering and fruiting stages, she explained, so adjustments must be made throughout cultivation.

"After bringing the costs down, I will introduce it to our growers," she said. She hopes other households will then be able to earn additional income from blueberries. The work is still at the trial stage.

Zhang recalled another occasion when her skills took her beyond her own greenhouses. Invited to teach farmers in Ili, she prepared six sets of teaching materials based on her experience and spent seven days giving talks across three counties.

Seeing growers eager to learn new techniques left a strong impression on her. She said she had initially learned cultivation skills to improve her own income; teaching showed her that the same knowledge could also help others. "As a farmer, I felt truly proud," she said.

SOURCE China Daily