In the current era of accelerated modernization in agriculture and rural areas, Cangxi County in Guangyuan City, Sichuan Province, located in the Qinba mountainous region of northern Sichuan, is taking its traditional specialty industry—the Cangxi Snow Pear—as a core vehicle. It is deeply integrating digital technology into the entire production, circulation, and processing chain. This effort is driving the transformation of the traditional fruit industry towards standardization, digitalization, and branding, exploring a distinctive path where smart agriculture empowers rural revitalization. Recently, a visit was made to the Yunshan Town Snow Pear Modern Agricultural Park in Cangxi County to trace the journey of a snow pear's intelligent upgrade from "field to fork."
From "Planting by Experience" to "Managing Orchards with Data"
Entering the Yunshan Town provincial three-star Snow Pear Modern Agricultural Park, rows of pear trees are neatly arranged, with verdant fruits hanging uniformly from the branches. During the peak harvest season, fruit farmers move efficiently through the orchards, a scene of abundant harvest. While Cangxi snow pear cultivation has a long history, orchard management long relied on farmers' traditional experience, leading to uneven tree shapes, inconsistent fruit quality, and significant fluctuations in yield and quality due to natural conditions. In recent years, the locality has started from the foundational planting stage, comprehensively promoting standardized cultivation techniques like flat trellises and Y-shaped frames, guiding farmers to standardize pruning. This has significantly improved ventilation and light penetration for the trees, enhancing fruit quality at the source while also creating space for mechanized farming and harvesting operations, effectively reducing production costs.
"Standardized planting makes tree height controllable, making field operations like picking and pruning more convenient, and greatly improving the uniformity of fruit size and sweetness," said Xiang Fang, an agricultural technician at the Yunshan Town Agricultural Comprehensive Service Center.
Beyond technical upgrades, a digital monitoring system has installed a "smart brain" for production. At the Yizhai Village Agricultural Service Center, a large smart screen displays real-time core production data such as soil temperature and humidity, ambient temperature, and light duration. Various monitoring terminals deployed throughout the park transmit real-time field growth data back to a central system, allowing staff to monitor orchard conditions anytime via computers or mobile devices and issue precise agricultural guidance based on crop growth cycles.
Shen Yudao, deputy director of the Yizhai Village Committee, explained that the smart monitoring system has fundamentally changed the previous production model of "relying on the weather and judging by experience," shifting agricultural decision-making from "experience-driven" to "data-driven." It is expected to increase agricultural production efficiency by over 30%, with significant growth in the rate of premium fruit. The improvement in planting benefits is most directly felt by the fruit farmers.
"This year's pears are uniform in size, high in sweetness, with better yield and quality than previous years," said Zhang Menghua, a Yizhai villager with years of planting experience, noting that standardized techniques and data-driven guidance have made cultivation more methodical and boosted confidence in a good harvest.
From "Fresh on the Branch" to "Best-Sellers in the Cloud"
Growing good fruit is one thing; selling it at a good price is another. Aligning with development requirements to strengthen rural specialty industries, Cangxi County has established a circulation system combining "e-commerce to expand channels + cold chain to ensure quality," addressing the pain points of narrow sales radius and short保鲜期 for mountainous agricultural products.
E-commerce livestreaming has become a crucial tool for opening up online markets. In Yizhai Village, locally cultivated village livestreaming influencer Shen Bo sets up his直播 directly in the orchards and packaging areas. The镜头 broadcasts the entire process of pear picking, sorting, packing, and mailing, gaining consumer trust with a transparent "direct supply from origin, picked and shipped fresh" model. Reportedly,他的直播间 maintains stable daily orders of 100 to 200, with order volume doubling during holidays and peak consumption periods.
For cross-regional delivery of fresh produce, cold chain storage is key support. Not far from the livestreaming site, the Shuangpai Village cold storage facility has a total capacity of 300 tons. Harvested pears can be immediately stored for保鲜, enabling off-season sales. "Before we had cold storage and convenient logistics, pears could only be stored for a little over a month, and sales were limited to the surrounding area. Now the保鲜期 can be extended to four or five months, and they can be shipped nationwide via express delivery," said Yang Maoling, a staff member at the cold chain logistics center.
The combined force of e-commerce and cold chain has driven growth in fruit sales for the town. It is reported that Yunshan Town has cultivated three village livestreaming influencers, built 800 tons of cold storage capacity, and achieved online sales of特色水果 exceeding 2 million yuan in the first half of this year, a year-on-year increase of 18%.
From digital monitoring and standardized planting in the fields to e-commerce livestreaming and cold chain distribution in the流通端, digital technology permeates every环节 of the Cangxi snow pear industry,推动 the industry's upgrade from单一的鲜果种植销售 to a modern industrial system with value-added across the entire chain.
From "Specialty Fruit" to "Golden Fruit of Prosperity"
In Yunshan Town, the snow pear industry has become the core pillar of local rural revitalization. Data shows the town's snow pear industry has an annual output value of 84 million yuan, driving employment for nearly 3,500 people, with an average increase of 22,800 yuan per farming household. In 2025, the Cangxi County Yunshan Snow Pear Modern Agricultural Park was successfully rated as a Sichuan Provincial Three-Star Snow Pear Modern Agricultural Park. A traditional local specialty is transforming into a "golden fruit of prosperity" that drives群众增收.
Looking across the entire county, Cangxi County continues to extend the snow pear industry chain and提升产业附加值. In processing, the county has established 16 primary processing points and 3 deep-processing enterprises, developing 25 product series across 6 major categories, including NFC雪梨汁. The added value in the processing环节 is more than double that of the raw fruit, achieving a value leap from "selling fresh fruit" to "selling processed products."
Simultaneously, the intelligent transformation of Cangxi snow pear is not a solo act by individual townships but a concerted "chorus"推进 across the entire county. As the "Hometown of Chinese Snow Pears," Cangxi County positions the snow pear industry as the core pillar industry for rural revitalization, conducting systematic planning and overall layout at the county level to build an industrial development pattern integrating production, education, research, and supply and marketing.
On the planting端, Cangxi County implements a "Five-Unified Model" of统一品种,统一标准,统一技术,统一品牌, and统一销售. It has formed a technological innovation alliance with the Sichuan Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Sichuan Agricultural University, successfully breeding six high-quality new varieties like Cuixue and Cangli 5-51, providing品种支撑 for continuous industrial upgrading. To date, the county's snow pear planting area reaches 165,000 mu, with an annual output exceeding 125,000 tons. The industry's comprehensive output value exceeds 2.8 billion yuan, involving 85,000 farming households in the snow pear industry development.
On the processing端, Cangxi County has currently built 16 primary processing points and 3 deep-processing enterprises, developing 25 series across 6 product categories like NFC雪梨汁, increasing processing added value by over twofold and achieving全链条升级.
On the sales端, Cangxi County has now incubated 85 e-commerce livestreaming teams, cultivated over 70 local e-commerce brands, opened 783 online stores, with e-commerce channels helping increase farmers' annual income by an average of 160 million yuan. The cold chain logistics system covers county, township, and village levels, with 441 county-level cold chain logistics centers and镇村冷库 built, and 3乡镇物流专线开通,彻底打通了 the "last mile" for农产品出村进城.
Regarding the industry's future development, Zu Songlong, Deputy Mayor of Yunshan Town, stated that the next steps will involve持续深化 digital technology application in production,推广标准化种植技术, steadily improving snow pear quality and premium fruit rate; upgrading cold chain storage facilities in the产销环节,壮大本土直播电商队伍, further polishing the brand;同时 extending the industry chain, exploring new formats integrating agriculture and tourism, and多渠道带动群众持续稳定增收.
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