Zhuzhou city, central China's Hunan Province has blazed atrail to prosperity by cultivating tea-oil camellia (camellia oleifera).

Statistics show that Zhuzhou is home to 2.2 million mu(146,667 hectares) of tea-oil trees, with a total output value of nearly tenbillion yuan ($1.38 billion).

Farmers pick camea oleifera fruits in Youxian county, Zhuzhou city, Hunan Province. (Media convergence center of Youxian county)

Leiguqiao village in the city saw a bumper harvest ofcamellia oleifera fruits not long ago, with the villagers busy picking, packingand loading them on trucks.

"There is over 13,000 mu of tea-oil trees, whoseproduction is expected to reach 5 million kilograms this year. Normally, 15kilograms of the camellia oleifera fruits can produce one kilogram of oil. Thismeans over 300,000 kilograms of oil can be produced this year," DengRicheng, executive of a tea-oil tree plantation, said excitedly.

The city once suffered from the low production ofcamellia oleifera fruits. Since the beginning of this year, the city hasdispatched 45 forestry experts and technicians to help growers. "Weadjusted the planting density, improved pruning and fertilization, and appliedtechniques to protect the flowers and fruits. As a result, the oil tea yieldper mu reached 400 kilograms this year, up from over 200 kilograms lastyear," said a technician named Wang Guangming.

Source: People's Daily