Smart Wolfberry Hometown: Crimson Fruits with Rich Flavor, Power Empowers Industrial Chain Prosperity

Zhongning County, Ningxia, is located in the irrigation area of the upper reaches of the Yellow River. As the birthplace of wolfberries in the world, it has a wolfberry planting history of over 600 years. The wolfberries produced here are renowned for their large size, thick flesh, and high sugar content, and are honored as the “Crimson Treasure”. Currently, the planting area of wolfberries in Zhongning County is stably maintained at 200,000 mu (approximately 13,333 hectares), with an annual output of 70,000 tons of fresh wolfberries, equivalent to 15,000 tons of dried wolfberries. Wolfberry industry has become a pillar industry for local rural revitalization.

Recently, in the 10,000-mu Core Demonstration Zone for Wolfberry Planting in Zhouta Township, Zhongning County, Zhang Xu, the person in charge of Xizan Manor, was checking the smart agricultural management system on his mobile phone. On the screen, data such as soil moisture, air humidity, and light intensity were updated in real time. After clicking the “Automatic Irrigation” button, the drip irrigation equipment in the fields was activated accurately. “In the past, we relied on manual watering, which consumed 800 cubic meters of water per mu. Now, with the intelligent system supported by electricity, water consumption per mu has been reduced by 40%, and we can also apply fertilizers precisely. The per-unit-area yield of wolfberries in the manor has increased by more than 5%,” said Zhang Xu.

Xizan Ecological Wolfberry Manor is situated in the Hongliugou small production area of Zhongning wolfberries, with a planned area of 13,000 mu and a wolfberry planting area of 10,000 mu. Since 2023, Xizan has collaborated with State Grid Zhongwei Power Supply Company to select a 100-mu wolfberry plantation for electrification transformation. Four supporting functions have been developed, including green environmental monitoring, automation transformation of integrated water and fertilizer machines, automatic field irrigation, and agricultural management, closely integrating technology with agricultural development. Meanwhile, to meet the electricity demand of growers in Xizan Wolfberry Manor, State Grid Zhongwei Power Supply Company has continuously promoted the electrification construction of the entire wolfberry industrial chain. It has proactively connected with users to provide precise services in links such as wolfberry planting and picking, added 4 distribution transformers, built 0.8 kilometers of 10-kilovolt power lines, and extended 3.2 kilometers of 10-kilovolt public power grid lines, injecting continuous momentum into the development of the wolfberry industry.

In recent years, many wolfberry processing plants in Zhouta Area, Zhongning County, have replaced all their original coal-fired drying ovens with electric drying ovens. Facing the surge in electricity load, State Grid Zhongwei Power Supply Company carried out power grid upgrading in Zhouta Township. Within one month, it added 5 transformers with a total capacity increase of 2,850 kilovolt-amperes, meeting the production electricity demand in this area.

To support the integrated development of “wolfberry + cultural tourism”, State Grid Zhongwei Power Supply Company has actively carried out village-based assistance work. It has fully leveraged its professional advantages to conduct regular “health checks” on users’ power lines and equipment, and assisted users in promptly eliminating detected defects. From smart planting to green processing, from product sales to the integration of cultural tourism, electricity is injecting sustained momentum into the entire industrial chain of Zhongning wolfberries. On this “crimson industrial chain”, more and more farmers and enterprises are riding the wave of electricity to sail towards the broad blue ocean of rural revitalization. (By Liu Xuanye, Huo Yuqi)