Headed to market

However, travel between the two townships became much easier when a 34-km paved road was completed last month.

The winding road drops from an altitude of 4,200 meters to 3,500 meters and connects 2,300 herders living in three villages to the trading township below.

"The travel time has been cut to a 30-minute drive by van," said He Dongming, deputy director of the transport bureau of the county."The milk is fresher when transported down the hill, so the sale price for milk has increased from 4 yuan to 7 yuan for a half liter."

He said it was no longer a buyer's market and if the herders were unhappy about prices offered for their products they could simply take them back home. The herders can also travel to other townships in the county to seek better prices for their products and customers can drive up the mountain and buy produce and goods directly.

"The passive role of our herdsmen has completely changed," He said.

With an investment of 50 million yuan, road construction began in 2018 as part of the Ministry of Transport's poverty eradication plan aimed at improving infrastructure in Zamtang county.

Since 2009, the Ministry of Transport has invested 2.14 billion yuan in targeted poverty relief efforts for the prefecture's Xiaojin, Zamtang and Heishui counties, and Sertar county in the Garze Tibetan autonomous prefecture, building 127 roads covering 1,440 km.

Fruits of success

Road infrastructure problems had for years hindered fruit farmers from Mulan village, Xiaojin county, from accessing wider markets.

Green apples from the county are prized for their acidity and a red blush on the skin. With a cultivation area of 80 hectares, Mulan village is a major apple production region in the county.

Last year, about 400 households in the village harvested 5,000 metric tons of green apples, generating revenue of over 7 million yuan.

But in 2015, it was a totally different picture.

Back then, a national highway passed by the village but there was no connecting road, leaving Mulan village isolated on the mountainside.

Fruit growers had to carry baskets of apples down slopes on their backs and hawk them on the highway to passing motorists.

Some growers made the extra effort to take their apples to a wholesale market in the provincial capital Chengdu, more than 300 km away. The one-way journey took seven to eight hours. Many of the apples spoiled on the way and the wholesale price was 0.6 yuan per 500 grams.

Before 2015, the village's total revenue from apple sales was below 2 million yuan. Due to weak demand, a large quantity of apples was left to rot in the fields.

Villagers lost confidence in their ability to earn a living from the fruit and orchards were left untended.

In 2015, to boost the apple industry, the village paths were surfaced and a road to the highway began construction. Four years later, a total of 3.5 km of asphalt road was extended into the village.

Since then, the Mulan green apple has earned a good reputation and generated strong sales. Fruit retailers drive trucks into the village and purchase the green apples for a wholesale price of 1.5 yuan per 500 grams.

In 2017, Mulan village welcomed its first delivery depot, which encouraged the growers to sell their apples nationwide on online platforms such as WeChat and Taobao.

"I meet a lot of consumers from Zhejiang province on WeChat and they like my apples very much," said Long Huagui, 50, a farmer from the village.

"All I need to do is to pack the apples at the depot and the rest is in the hands of the delivery business. It takes three days at most for the apples to reach customers' homes."

The retail price varies from 3 to 5 yuan per 500 grams and about 15 percent of the output is sold online.

Long said selling apples is no longer difficult, and before they have come into season he starts receiving orders.

Fruit growing has developed into a multi-billion-yuan industry in the prefecture and has helped increase farmers' income and relieve poverty. Last year, the prefecture's cultivation area for apples, pears, cherries, plums and other fruit reached 18,032 hectares while output topped 211,400 tons.