Hard to Attract Abundant Young Labors due to Huge Investment and Low Income in Apple Cultivation

By CnAgri2018-07-11 10:42:32 Print Delicacy management is needed in apple cultivation. At present, China’s apples are concentrated in hilly and mountainous regions. The scale and mechanization degrees are not high and the dependence on human labor is significant. Every link such as winter reduction, pesticide spraying, blossom and fruit thinning, bagging, topdressing, irrigation and pruning needs human labors. Besides, at present, severe aging is found among the cultivated apple trees. At present, mechanization is applied in apple storage and sorting links. The other links such as large scale and mechanization are hard to reach due to the peculiarity in apple cultivation. Even if these could be implemented in later period, the relevant cost would be high.
 
According to the investment in the main producing areas, the investment in the Northwest is lower than Shandong. The average investment in Shaanxi is RMB 4,345/mu while the average investment in Shandong is RMB 7,890/mu and the average investment in the large scale cultivation is RMB 11,193/mu. The cost is relevantly high. If the output per mu is 1500kg to 2000 kg/mu, the cultivation cost is RMB1.1/500g to RMB1.5/500g in Shaanxi while the cost in Shandong is RMB1.97/500g to RMB2.63/500g; the cost of the large scale cultivation is RMB2.8/500g to RMB3.7/500g. If the price is 3RMB/500g, the gross income per mu would be about RMB10,000. Deducting the investment, the net margin would be about 2,000 RMB/mu to 3,000 RMB/mu. At present, a typical farmer owns 5mu and his income would be 10,000 RMB to 15,000 RMB. This doesn’t include labor cost. Apple cultivation can hardly attract abundant young labors from the origin.