Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences Helps Pingzhai Village Upgrade Its Coffee Industry

At a Glance (China Coffee Network): The Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences village resident work team in Pingzhai Village has secured 63,000 yuan in support funds to distribute 35,000 premium coffee seedlings free of charge, driving the transformation and upgrading of the local specialty coffee industry.

To address weaknesses in its specialty agriculture and consolidate the foundation for stable income growth, the village resident work team of the Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences (YAAS) stationed in Pingzhai Village, Fengshan Town, Jinggu Dai and Yi Autonomous County, recently leveraged its sponsoring unit’s resources, secured 63,000 yuan in academy-level support funds, and precisely purchased 35,000 high-quality new-variety premium coffee seedlings, which were distributed free of charge to local coffee-farming households. These concrete industrial-support measures are driving the transformation and upgrading of Pingzhai Village’s specialty coffee industry.

Pingzhai Village is located in a mountainous area with a mild climate and suitable soil; coffee cultivation is the main source of local household income and a key specialty pillar industry of the village. However, for a long time most households stuck to old coffee varieties, suffering from weak disease resistance, poor bean appearance and low market prices, creating a prominent bottleneck for industrial income growth. After learning of farmers’ actual needs, the resident work team drew on its professional strength in agricultural research, conducted field surveys of soil, altitude, precipitation and other growing conditions, screened high-quality new varieties suited to the local climate with strong disease resistance and high premium-bean yields, and strictly controlled seedling quarantine and growth quality to safeguard survival rates and later yields from the source.

The 35,000 premium coffee seedlings distributed this time cover multiple villager groups in Pingzhai Village, effectively expanding the scale of premium coffee planting and saving farmers the cost of purchasing seedlings while reducing planting investment pressure. Compared with traditional varieties, the new-variety beans have better flavor and greater market premium potential, and are expected to increase per-mu income for growers by more than 2,000 yuan.