On September 9, workers from the First Division Fifth Regiment were livestreaming apple sales. Photo by Li Kang.

On September 13, Chen Hong, a worker from the First Division Fifth Regiment, was pruning apple trees. Photo by Li Kang.

By Shi Jiliang

In September, Shahe Town of the First Division Fifth Regiment is adorned with apple trees heavy with red fruit, painting a beautiful picture of harvest season. This town, renowned as the "Apple Township," boasts 71,000 acres of apple orchards with an annual output of 292,000 tons and a yearly production value of 1.439 billion yuan. It has earned honors including "Tianshan Jade Apple Characteristic Town" and "National Rural Characteristic Industry Town with Over One Billion Yuan Output Value." This year, it was also recognized as a "National Agricultural Industry Strong Town." By leveraging the apple industry, the town has forged a path of rural revitalization characterized by "strong fruit industry, prosperous fruit farmers, and beautiful fruit townships."

**Building the Foundation: Transforming from Small-Scale Scattered Planting to Modern Industry**

"Old Ma, your apples are growing so well!" On September 9, a month before apple harvest, buyers had already arrived at Ma Weidong's orchard in the Seventh Company of the Fifth Regiment. Seeing the quality fruit covering the trees, they couldn't help but praise, "For apples like these, I'll pay 0.2 yuan per kilogram above market price."

Looking at the tempting apples, Ma Weidong recalled his initial concerns and sighed, "Thanks to the good policies introduced by the town and the patient guidance of technicians, my old orchard has been revitalized after transformation."

In spring 2019, Shahe Town of the Fifth Regiment launched the "upgrade, transformation, quality improvement, and efficiency enhancement" project for old orchards.

Ma Weidong's orchard had over 20 years of planting history. The fruit trees were lush with branches and leaves, but fruit setting was poor, and the commercial fruit rate was low. Although Ma wanted to transform his orchard, the thought of topping and trunk-raising his beloved trees, and removing closely spaced ones, felt like cutting his heart out.

"Topping, trunk-raising, thinning, and branch pruning aren't random cuts. They follow the growth patterns of fruit trees, allowing each tree to fully bathe in sunlight and absorb nutrients. While it may seem like fewer trees and sparser branches in the short term, in the long run, both fruit quality and yield will improve," explained town technicians who visited repeatedly, patiently explaining the benefits of orchard transformation until they finally convinced Ma Weidong.

Today, Ma Weidong's orchard has become a demonstration garden for old orchard transformation in Shahe Town, and he has become a "transformation expert" in his company.

Ma Weidong's experience reflects Shahe Town's push for "old garden renewal." The town launched a "Five-Year Apple Industry Quality and Efficiency Improvement Action," implementing systematic transformations including topping and trunk-raising on 40,000 acres of old orchards, gradually shifting planting methods from "tall, dense, and extensive" to "dwarf, dense, and refined."

Shahe Town is located in the core industrial belt of "rock candy heart" apples, with annual sunshine hours exceeding 2,800 hours and day-night temperature differences reaching over 15 degrees Celsius. Tianshan snow water flows through sandy soil, providing quality water sources for tree growth while ensuring soil breathability and fertility retention, creating ideal conditions for Red Fuji apple cultivation.

Since the establishment of the Fifth Regiment in 1956, apple cultivation has spanned 69 years, evolving through stages of small-scale scattered planting, large-scale development, and quality-efficiency improvement, now rapidly transforming toward modern industry.

**Technology Empowerment: From Traditional Planting to Smart Agriculture**

Morning sunlight illuminated the apple orchard of Shaanxi Fangxu Industrial Co., Ltd. in Shahe Town. Technician Wang Sihan lightly tapped her phone screen, and nutrient-rich water flowed through drip irrigation lines, precisely reaching each tree's root system.

During this year's fruit-bearing period, some trees showed yellowing leaves. Wang Sihan accessed the system backend and reviewed fertilization records, discovering that potassium delivery was 7 percentage points below standard. She adjusted parameters on screen, and within 5 minutes, newly proportioned nutrient solution flowed through pipes into the soil. Three days later, the yellowing leaves gradually turned green.

"Look at this data – the smart system saves fertilizer and water while increasing fruit sweetness by 2 points," Wang Sihan said.

This orchard is a high-standard demonstration garden jointly developed by Shahe Town and Shaanxi Fangxu Industrial Co., Ltd., featuring an integrated water-fertilizer management system that enables "managing thousands of acres with one phone."

"Previously, tree spacing was 4 meters; now it's reduced to 1.2 meters with increased row spacing to facilitate direct machinery access," explained Yang Chunmei, a professional technician from the Fifth Regiment's Agriculture and Forestry Center, pointing to neatly arranged fruit trees in the high-standard demonstration garden. The transition from traditional tall cultivation to dwarf dense planting increased tree density from 60 to 129 trees per acre, with spindle-shaped tree designs ensuring more uniform apple lighting and significantly higher commercial rates.

"Each tree maintains 25-30 fruiting branches with precisely calculated fruit numbers per branch, enabling precise control of fruit shape and coloring. Production begins in the third year, with peak production in the fifth and sixth years – two years earlier than traditional cultivation," said Ma Houze, Production Department Director, highlighting the advantages of dwarf dense planting.

Technology empowerment extends beyond planting to post-harvest processing. In 2023, Shahe Town invested 3.2 million yuan to build an automated apple sorting line with dual channels and eight sorting stations, achieving the leap from "manual selection" to "intelligent sorting." "Each apple is photographed 16 times upon entering the sorting box, with systems analyzing color, sugar content, size, and blemishes. One production line equals the work of 40 people for 10 hours," introduced Wang Siyi, Cold Storage Manager at Xinjiang Yuergun Agricultural Development Co., Ltd.

**Industrial Development: From Individual Struggle to Farmer Enrichment**

Wu Yonghua, a worker in the Fourth Company of the Fifth Regiment, has been growing apples for 15 years. Previously, her biggest concern during harvest was apple sales. One year, an outside buyer offered only 3.2 yuan per kilogram for her apples. She hesitated and didn't agree, resulting in 30% of her red apples rotting at the field edge, failing to recover even her costs. Recalling this experience, Wu remains shaken.

"Back then, we feared buyers finding faults – complaining about irregular shapes or uneven coloring, really just trying to lower prices," Wu said. "Fundamentally, farmers waited at field edges for outside buyers, fighting alone without pricing power. Now, companies take over once fruit is harvested, and we receive payment before goods are shipped. We no longer worry about apple sales difficulties." Wu's face beamed with joy.

Eliminating farmers' sales concerns relies on the town's complete industrial chain.

Recently, Shahe Town established tight benefit-sharing mechanisms through models like "leading enterprises + cooperatives + workers" and "cooperatives + bases + farmers," allowing workers to share industrial development dividends.

Shahe Town has established 24 fruit industry professional cooperatives with 330 members and registered capital of 101.025 million yuan, cultivating three division-level demonstration cooperatives. Ten fruit storage, processing, and sales enterprises have been introduced, forming an industrial development community of "enterprises driving cooperatives, cooperatives connecting workers."

"We provide loan interest subsidies for enterprises and cooperatives promoting new varieties, deep processing, and e-commerce, and reward entities with significant driving effects to encourage participation in apple industry development," stated Dou Junjie, Party Committee Secretary of Shahe Town and Political Commissar of the Fifth Regiment.

In the Seventh Company of the Fifth Regiment, the apple industry has become the "pillar" industry for rural revitalization. The company's 9,221 acres of orchards cultivate quality varieties including early-ripening Fuji and Red Fuji, becoming a demonstration company through cold storage construction, ecological environment improvement, and talent training base development.

**Full Chain Extension: From "One Apple" to "Multiple Business Forms"**

"Previously, apples could only be sold fresh, rotting in fields when unsold. Now it's different – premium fruit goes to supermarkets, secondary fruit becomes wine, and damaged fruit makes juice. Not a single apple is wasted," Wu Yonghua's sentiment reflects changes brought by Fifth Regiment apple industry chain extension. Today, Shahe Town has formed a complete industrial chain encompassing "seedling breeding – planting management – storage preservation – deep processing – e-commerce sales – leisure tourism," maximizing apple value.

For storage and preservation, the Fifth Regiment built 10 cold storage facilities with 50,000 tons total capacity, plus a Southern Xinjiang Fruit Trading Market integrating fresh fruit wholesale/retail and controlled atmosphere preservation. Phase I features 254 shops and 54 controlled atmosphere storage units ensuring off-season sales; Phase II's e-commerce park, fruit display areas, cold chain logistics, and processing facilities further complete industrial infrastructure. "With cold storage and controlled atmosphere facilities, apples stay fresh 6-8 months, allowing sales timing adjustments based on market conditions. In 2024, my apples sold for 2 yuan more per kilogram," Wu smiled.

Deep processing represents a key link in Fifth Regiment apple value addition. In 2023, Shahe Town collaborated with Northwest A&F University to establish an Agricultural Product Processing Technology R&D Center focusing on apple deep processing technology. "From apples to apple wine involves over 10 processes including crushing, juicing, and alcoholic fermentation. After over 3 months of repeated trials, apple distilled spirits and apple vinegar processes have matured, ready for industrial production," introduced Professor Li Zhixi from Northwest A&F University's College of Food Science and Engineering.

According to Xue Li, Deputy General Manager of Xinjiang Yuergun Agricultural Development Co., Ltd., deep processing projects will not only consume inferior fruit but increase apple added value by 3-5 times, generating over 10 million yuan in additional annual income for fruit farmers.

As business forms diversify and industry segments proliferate with extended chains, a group of market-savvy "new farmers" has emerged as livestreaming influencers, opening "online sales channels" for Fifth Regiment apples. The Fifth Regiment e-commerce livestreaming base, operational since 2023, has conducted over 500 livestreaming sessions, selling 310 tons of apples and other agricultural products worth 13 million yuan.

"Apples go directly from fields to consumers, eliminating intermediaries so farmers earn more while consumers get fresh fruit," said Zhang Weijun, Executive Director of the company.

From sporadic planting in 1956 to today's 71,000-acre scale; from traditional "bulk sales" to current "individual sales" and "brand sales"; from single fresh food sales to complete industrial chain development – the apple industry in Shahe Town of the Fifth Regiment witnesses a town's growth and transformation. With advancing high-standard demonstration garden construction, continuous industrial chain extension, and expanding brand influence, Shahe Town uses the apple industry as its brush to paint a brilliant new picture of strong towns and prosperous people.