Villagers of Shilong, a 100-household community near the top of a big mountain in southwest China's Sichuan Province, regret not taking similar action when Yu Jianying started planting trees four years ago.

"We all got State allowances for ecological rehabilitation in 1999, as compensation for us for not farming on the mountain slopes any more," says Yu, a 39-year-old mother of two.

"I put the money, with some additional funds I had raised on my own, into buying seedlings and installing irrigation pipes."

In four years, Yu has turned her 1.27 hectares of cornfield on the mountain slope in Shimian County under the Ya'an city into an orchard of 1,100 pear trees, 500 peach trees and 2,000 firs.

Last year, she made 12,000 yuan (US$1,450) from the sale of peaches and pears.

"This almost tripled what my husband earned from working at a township factory," she says proudly.

"And it far exceeded what we made from our corn farming years ago."

At the time, Yu recalls, she gathered no more than 4,500 kilograms of corn a year, which was barely enough to feed the family.

Now, she says: "I feel rich with money in my pocket."

Other villagers hesitated when Yu began planting trees in her former cornfield.

The mountain slopes, 1,200 metres above sea level, "were barren when I came here for marriage 17 years ago," she says.

"No one in the village was experienced in tree planting, let alone in techniques like grafting."

The whole county of Shimian, upstream of the Yangtze River, is covered by a national scheme to reforest formerly cultivated land and preserve natural forests, according to Shuang Zhiyun, director of the city's forestry administration. The program was launched in 1999.

For this, Shuang says, local farmers like Yu are annually compensated by the State to the tune of 50 yuan (US$6.04) and 150 kilograms of grain for every mu - it takes 15 mu to cover 1 hectare - for a period of five to eight years, depending on the elevation and gradient of the slopes, as well as the variety of the trees planted.

Some villagers were content with the allowances and stayed idle, while others went out to seek jobs, as Yu's husband did.

They did not believe that, without experience and skills, they could succeed in planting trees on such a high and dry mountain.

But Yu was determined.

"I took part in a training workshop organized by the township government, which took us to a neighboring county to learn some basic skills for fruit tree cultivation," she says.

The workshop convinced Yu that she could make money from the orchard.

"I have dreamed of getting rich through labor ever since I was married here," says the woman with seven years of schooling.

"I tried every means, raising chickens, pigs and ducks, and growing cash crops. But it was all in vain."

Yet this time she made it.

"The county forestry administration and township government send technicians to offer guidance on how to graft the fruit trees and when to spray pesticide," she says. "Now I can do everything on my own."

Her fruit first brought in money in 2001, two years after the orchard started.

"My success has inspired other villagers and they have also started planting fruit trees," Yu says.

She is pleased that her fellow villagers are following suit.

"With a considerable fruit output, the market will follow," she explains.

"As there is only one household planting fruit trees, the output is too limited for the dealers to come to you. So you have to bear all the trouble of finding them and shipping your fruit to them."

On the other hand, Yu says shrewdly, "when everyone in the village plants fruit trees, you don't fear that your fruit might be stolen."

Yu and others have been warned not to overdo it with the pesticide and fertilizer, to guarantee the quality and marketability of the produce.

Yu says she has taken the advice to heart.

"Last year, for all my 1,600 fruit trees, I only spent 100 yuan (US$12) on chemicals, mainly nutrients. We apply organic manure instead of chemical fertilizer and minimize the use of pesticide," she said.

Despite Yu's success, forestry official Shuang says there are still not many farmers who have benefited from the reforestation program in the county, "because most of them waited and watched for the first two years and did not take any action until a few pioneers like Yu cashed in from their tree planting."

As a result, he says the county has only rehabilitated 6,330 hectares with artificial forest against a planned 10,000 hectares. "We need to bring up more models like Yu Jianying," Shuang said.

However, the positive impact of the ecological rehabilitation endeavor has manifested.

"As the county's forest coverage increases from 68 to 72 per cent, we can see that the water of the Dadu River that flows through the city proper is less muddy in springtime," Shuang says.

Yu has also keenly felt the improvement.

"We used to suffer from mountain slides and mud-rock flows every year," she says.

"Since the mountain slopes here are covered with trees, we haven't seen that for three years."

Yu believes her orchard will also help her raise chickens when the trees are big enough to offer shade.

"So far the trees do not have enough shade to protect chickens from attacks by big birds like hawks. When they do I will raise a lot of chickens. Chickens can pick worms from the trees," she says optimistically.

(China Daily May 21, 2003)