Chapter 49 Drip Irrigation Facilities

  Actually, from Xiao Ping's perspective, he provided free emerald vegetables to the provincial government canteen just for the sake of advertising effect, and didn't think about other aspects. Xiao Ping's ambition is not limited to the provincial capital and Su City, but also wants to open up the entire province and even the national market in the future. At that time, he will have to face so many customers, and cannot rely solely on word-of-mouth business. The title of "Provincial Government Canteen Vegetable Supplier" is enough to reassure the vast majority of customers who are skeptical.

  Xiao Ping didn't know that he had become an object of Liu Yunting's attempts to win him over, and he was still single-mindedly focused on building his farm. After selling the newly harvested vegetables, Xiao Ping had some spare money in hand and began to think about new hobbies again. This time, he wanted to improve the facilities in the mountain fruit garden.

  A thousand blueberry trees planted on the mountain are thriving, each tree is lush and green with shiny leaves, and there is not a single tree in the entire orchard that has been damaged by pests or diseases. The reason why these blueberry trees can grow so well, apart from the careful care of the farm workers, is of course due to Xiao Ping's watering every few days with water mixed with spiritual liquid.

  However, doing so is very helpful for the growth of blueberry trees, but the labor intensity is really too great. Every time watering requires farm workers to carry buckets of water up the mountain, and this task alone takes everyone half a day of hard work. Xiao Ping also has to take advantage of the opportunity when others are not paying attention to add the spiritual liquid to the water bucket, which is also very dangerous. Even though Xiao Ping's movements are now very agile, doing so many times still poses a risk, and several times he almost got discovered by others, this can't go on for long.

  Xiao Ping had long wanted to install drip irrigation facilities in the orchard, not only to reduce labor intensity but also so that he wouldn't have to worry about being discovered when adding spiritual liquid to the water used for irrigating fruit trees. However, due to tight funds previously, this had never been implemented, and now it could finally be put on the agenda.

  However, Xiao Ping did not expect that when he discussed his idea with others, Wang Dapao and other workers on the farm unanimously opposed it.

  "What's the point of wasting money?" Wang Dapao waved his hand and said, "It's just carrying water up the mountain every few days, the mountain is not high and the road is easy to walk, this little work doesn't count for anything! Don't bother!"

  Other workers also echoed Wang's words and told Xiao Ping that they were not afraid of the hardship, and it was fine if they didn't have the drip irrigation system.

  Since Xiao Ping started managing the farm, he has been quite good to the workers. Not only does he pay everyone's salary on time every month, but from the second month onwards, he also gives out bonuses. Depending on each person's workload, Wang Dapao earns the most with a monthly income of over 4,000 yuan, while others earn more than 3,000 yuan. Xiao Ping has also promised to give everyone a substantial year-end bonus before the Spring Festival.

  With such a good boss, everyone is full of energy. Although carrying water up the mountain is indeed hard work, no one has any complaints. Now hearing Xiao Ping say he wants to build a drip irrigation system, everyone instead comes out to advise him, wanting to help him save this money.

  "Alas, I was thinking this way." Unexpectedly, the change that could alleviate everyone's burden would be opposed. Xiao Ping sighed and said: "At present, we have not many fruit trees, and everyone can still carry water up the mountain, but the farm will develop in the future. If the orchard expands to 20 or 30 mu, or even 50 or 100 mu, how can it rely on human power for irrigation? Now that everyone is still young, this kind of work is nothing, but after a few years when you are older, do you want to carry water up the mountain again?"

  Xiao Ping's words were very reasonable, and Wang Dapao and others also showed a deep thinking expression. Seeing that his words had taken effect, Xiao Ping hurriedly continued: "I came to Xiaozhou Village to engage in agriculture, not just playing for one or two years and then leaving. So everything should be considered from a long-term perspective. Maybe at present, the drip irrigation system is not necessarily necessary, but we have to plan for the future, right?"

  Xiao Ping said it to this extent, and Wang Dapao and others couldn't oppose it anymore. Moreover, they could hear that the boss was planning to make a big move in Xiao Zhou Village, which made everyone feel deeply excited. Wang Dapao looked at others and still took the lead in expressing his attitude: "Alright, since you've said so, boss, what else can we say? We'll start working tomorrow!"

  The drip irrigation facility sounds like high-tech, but it's actually just a pipeline system. The pipeline will pass under each tree in the orchard, and just open a few small holes near the roots. When in use, just pour water into the pipeline, and the entire orchard can be irrigated at once.

  The mountainous areas of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces are numerous, and the orchards using drip irrigation systems are not uncommon. For ordinary farmers, this is not a new thing either. It's not difficult to find someone to build such facilities. The next day, Xiao Ping found the company that had built the vegetable greenhouse for the farm and asked them to build a drip irrigation system for the orchard.

  Business came to the door, of course, was delighted, and immediately dispatched two technicians with Xiao Ping to the farm, where they examined the size of the orchard's hills and slopes, as well as the number of fruit trees, and quickly came up with a plan for setting up the system.

  Because the farm is close to Xiaozhou River, the technician suggested pumping water from Xiaozhou River for irrigation. Although the initial investment may be larger due to the need to purchase a water pump and other equipment, it is still cost-effective in the long run.

  Xiao Ping had no objection to this, but he had one requirement: that a water storage tank be built at the highest point in the mountainous area. The water drawn from the Xiaozhou River would have to be stored in the tank before it could be piped out for irrigation of the fruit trees.

  Xiao Ping's requirement was, of course, for his own convenience to add the spiritual liquid to the water. If the drawn water was directly used to irrigate the fruit trees, he would have no chance to add the spiritual liquid. However, he couldn't say this to others and only told the technician that his family's blueberry tree was very sensitive to water temperature and needed to be stored for a period of time after being drawn before use.

  Although the two technicians had some doubts about Xiao Ping's statement, after all, he was the boss and it was normal to make demands. Anyway, Xiao Ping said that the cost would be calculated accordingly, so they naturally wouldn't object and quickly modified the design before starting construction.

  Apart from Xiao Ping's proposal to build a water storage tank on the mountain, the other parts of the drip irrigation system were not large in scale, and the entire facility was completed within ten or more days. As long as the pump by the river is started, the river water will be pumped into the water storage tank on the mountain for storage, and when needed, just open the valve to the irrigation pipe, the entire orchard can be automatically irrigated.

  For the farm workers, this means that their workload has decreased a lot. For Xiao Ping, it means he no longer needs to secretly add the spiritual liquid to the water used for irrigating the fruit trees. Now, as long as Xiao Ping is free, he can go up the mountain at any time and add the spiritual liquid to the water storage tank, so that every blueberry tree can be nourished by the spiritual liquid next time it's irrigated.

  For the construction of drip irrigation facilities, Xiao Ping has been busy for more than ten days. In addition to worrying about the renovation project of Xiaolou, he feels that time is not enough every day, and even lacks the opportunity to take a good look at Lianyao Hu. Now that the drip irrigation facility is finally completed, Xiao Ping can finally have time to care about the situation in Lianyao Hu.

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