Villages in Jiangyan district are busy transplanting passion fruit seedlings in a steel-framed greenhouse. [Photo/xuexi.cn]
Passion fruit seedlings are growing healthily inside steel-framed greenhouses in Luzhuang, greatly increasing farmers' income at this village administered by Gugao town in Jiangyan district of Taizhou city in East China's Jiangsu.
Wan Xingyou, Party secretary of Luzhuang village, said the area has successfully introduced passion fruit after two years of trial planting.
Passion fruit is native to subtropical regions of South America. It grows on vines at ideal temperatures of 20 C to 30 C, and is more widely grown nowadays in southern China.
Wan said Luzhuang village built a 2,000-square-meter greenhouse and introduced Li Jianhui, an expert from Fujian province, two years ago to give the industry a shot in the arm.
As the average temperature in Taizhou city ranges from 13 C to 21 C, villagers experienced many hurdles and failures before finally managing to grow this tropical fruit.
"Passion fruit can yield fruit from July to November, and each mu (666.67 square meters) can bring over 1,000 kilograms of fruit and a net income of more than 10,000 yuan ($1442.77)," said Li.
Some 50 mu of low-yielding fields in Luzhuang will be transformed into passion fruit plantations, with at least 10 low-income farmers set to work in the greenhouses. Wan said fruit-picking bases will also be built to further explore tourism resources.