“In the navel orange park, it gives me great pleasure when immersed in the fragrance of navel orange flowers. I take many photos and will post some of them on my WeChat moments to attract my friends to visit here,” said Mrs. Ou. The fragrance of navel oranges helps release stress and makes people feel delightful.

 

The blooming flowers hanging all over the branches herald a good harvest of navel oranges this year. 

 

 

In the park, the farmers are busy working. “We need to take measures to protect the flowers in spring, which mainly involve red spider and canker prevent and control. As the weather has been fine recently, we can handle the work by ourselves these days. We hope for a good crop yield this year,” said a couple from Luojiashan Village, Yuxi Town, Chenzhou City. 

 

Li Hongliang and his wife have a clear division of work. One is busy weeding and fertilizing, while the other sprays pesticides to prevent spring pests and diseases. They have planted over 20 mu (about 1.33 hectares) of navel oranges, which brings them a decent income every year. 

 

 

Yizhang County is the main production area along the navel orange superior industrial belt of Southern Jiangxi-Southern Hunan-Northern Guangxi planned by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. It is also the key county of citrus production in Hunan Province. 

 

The planting area of navel oranges in the county has reached 286,000 mu (about 19,066.67 hectares). At present, the planting area is increasing by 10,000 mu (about 666.67 hectares) annually in the county. It is expected that by 2025, the planting area of Yizhang navel oranges will exceed 300 thousand mu (20,000 hectares), with an annual output of 300 thousand tons and an output value of more than 1.5 billion yuan. Navel orange has become the leading industry for the locals to get rich and increase income.