Development of Special Thin Skinned Walnut of Leijiadian Township 

　　I.History of Walnut Production 

　　The high quality walnut of Leijiadian Township originated from the 45-mu high quality walnut production demonstration garden built by Liaoning Institute of Economic Forestry in 1986 in Huiyaogou Village of Leijiadian Township. The walnut orchard that represented three provinces and two cities around the Bohai Sea (Liaoning Province, Hebei Province, Shandong Province, Beijing, Tianjin), participated in the evaluation of 19 walnut high-yield demonstration gardens. The walnut orchard has been managed by experts of economic forestry of Liaoning Province for five years. In 1991, the walnut orchard passed the national acceptance and the yield per mu reached 75-100 kilograms. Then the garden was handed over to the management of the village of Huiyaogou. Because of the low market price of walnut at that time, the local people could not recognize the value of the walnut garden so it was basically abandoned. 

　　After the walnut branches in the garden were cut off by Hebei Forestry Department as scions in 1994 and the experts Jin Quanwu and Jin Chengzhe from the Korean Academy of Mountainous Forestry Sciences visited the park in 1997, the Township Party Committee and the township government attached great importance to the walnut orchard and put forward the economic development direction of taking the development of walnut industry as the core and jujube and apricot as the auxiliary. In 1997, the town purchased 10,000 improved walnut seedlings from Liaoning Economic Forestry Research Institute and planted 260 mu in the provincial demonstration garden. They hired experts from the Provincial Institute of Economic Forestry as technical guidance and began walnut indoor grafting to breed walnut seedlings. 

　　In 1999, the township Party Committee and the township government made great efforts to increase investment in the facilities of walnut winter grafting and seedling raising. They loaned 1.67 million yuan from the Agricultural Bank of the county to build a high-quality nursery stock breeding center in Leijiadian Township, Jianchang County, including 2 awakening rooms (547m²), 15 solar greenhouses(5,145m?) and one constant temperature storage (80m?) heated by boiler. In that year, the healing rate of walnut indoor grafting reached 94.3% and the seedling rate reached 73.4%, ranking first among the peers in the province. In 2000, it was identified by the State Forestry Administration as a base for fine varieties of trees. Wen Shizhen, Secretary of the provincial Party committee, visited the town twice in 2001 and gave full recognition to walnut production. At the same time, the township seized the favorable opportunities of the national policy of Returning Farmland to Forestry, the loan from the World Bank, Liaoning 100-Village Poverty Alleviation Project, and the economic construction of provincial forestland to vigorously plant high-quality walnuts. Liu Wansheng, a walnut expert in the province, praised the town as The First Walnut Township in Northeast China. Since 2001, the provincial leaders Wen Shizhen, Zhang Wenyue, Li Keqiang, Hu Xiaohua and Chen Haibo have visited the township respectively, and affirmed the development of walnut industry. American researcher Mark, Ukrainian doctor Leon and Kudzunko inspected the walnut industry here, and gave them a high evaluation. 

　　II.Current Situation of Walnut Production 

　　1.Leijiadian Township Center for Good Seedling Breeding has 2 awakening rooms (486m²), 2 constant temperature storage (153m?), 6 solar greenhouses (3,360  m?),  and a panicle nursery (400 mu). It has the ability to breed 100,000 walnut grafted seedlings annually. 

　　2.Walnut Planting Situation. The field area of high quality walnut trees planted is 8,000 mu. Among them, the walnut trees in full fruit stage cover 3,000 mu, the walnut trees in fruiting stage cover 3,500  mu, and the walnut trees in early fruiting stage cover 1,500 mu. The annual yield of walnut is 300,000 kg, the output value is 11.04 million yuan, and the per-capita income is increased by 672 yuan. 

　　3.Honors. In 1993, 1997and 2000, Leijiadian Thin Skinned Walnut was awarded the Gold Prizes at Bangkok International Agricultural Products Fair, Dalian International Agricultural Products Fair and Shenyang International Agricultural Exposition and in 2003 it was awarded Excellent Agricutural Product Award at the 3rd Liaoning International Agricultural Fair. Leijiadian Thin Skinned Walnut won the Silver Prize at the Second China Walnut Congress in Shaanxi Province in Oct. 2009, the Gold Prize at China Forest Food Trade Fair in 2012 and the Gold Prize at the 8th Shenyang International Agricultural Exposition in Sept. 2013. 

　　Since 2009, the township has been appraised as Walnut Hometown of Special Products of Liaoning Province by Liaoning Agricultural Commission and other departments three times. In 2009, Leijiadian Township undertook the cross-regional demonstration project of forestry walnut technology extension under the central finance. In 2015, it passed the national green food certification for the fourth time. Leijiadian Thin Skinned Walnut was awarded the title of Huludao Famous Brand Product in 2011 and the titles of Liaoning Famous Brand Product in 2012 and 2015. In Sept. 2013, Leijiadian Township was approved by the State Forestry Administration as a national walnut demonstration base. In October 2013, it was approved by the State Administration of Quality Supervision and Inspection as the 7th Batch of National Walnut Agricultural Standardization Demonstration Zones. 

　　4.Trademark Registration 

　　The High-quality Thin Skinned Walnut of Leijiadian Township was registered “Jinhong Brand” trademark in China in 2006 and “Bailangshan Brand” trademark in 2009. In 2010, the county government registered the geographical trademark “Jianchang Thin-skinned Walnut” for the walnut produced in Leijiadian Township. 

　　III.Development Target of Walnut Production 

　　We should seize the good opportunity of developing 200,000 mu of Walnut in 3-5 years to build The First County of Walnut in China. We need to expand walnut planting area. We need to transform the land so that walnuts can be planted in all fields suitable for walnut cultivation. With the technical and facility advantages of the High-quality Seedling Breeding Center, we should intensify the seedling cultivation efforts and improve the seedling cultivation ability, so that we can help the surrounding towns to develop walnut industry in order to form the industrial scale and make due contributions to Jianchang to build itself to be The First County of Walnut in China.