Farmers in Yiyuan are reaping from their organic apple harvests. Photo by Wang Qian.

The wife of Li Bofeng picking apples from their orchard. Photo by Wang Qian.

Yiyuan, a county-level city in Shandong province, is committed to organic farming and plans to adopt organic cultivating techniques for use on 80 percent of its major products by 2015.

At an average altitude of 400 meters, the region is regarded as the most suitable planting area for green and organic food in Northern China.

Yiyuan now has more than 60 varieties of organic farm products, such as apples, grapes, large cherries and chives

It is home to 100 organic cultivation bases and orchards, covering a total area of 10,000 hectares, including China's first standardized organic apple planting base.

Thanks to the new techniques, the income of farmer Li Bofeng's family, who tends an organic apple orchard, has surged during the past five years.

"My orchard only uses organic fertilizers, and apples are sold well. The total income of my family in 2006 was about 20,000 yuan ($2,860), but we earned about 150,000 yuan last year alone," says Li, from Zhongzhuang village of the county.

By Wang Qian (China Daily Shandong Bureau)

Edited by Chen Zhilin and Tania Lee