The orange-growing story of Sun Zefu, a leader in prosperity in the hometown of oranges

Sun Zefu was born into an ordinary farming family in Jinfeng Village, Sanxi Town, Jintang County, Sichuan Province. He has always had an indissoluble bond with "agriculture." For his studies, he chose the horticulture major at Chengdu Agricultural College (formerly Wenjiang Agricultural School); after graduating in 1991, he went to work at the Jintang County Agriculture Bureau. Although he had taken up what the villagers saw as an "iron rice bowl," the routine work made it hard for Sun Zefu to feel happy. In the end, he chose to return to the land and go into business.

At that time in Sanxi Town, Jintang County, the navel orange planting area was about 20,000 mu, with an annual output of 50 million kg, and the products were sold far and wide across the country. Although Sanxi Town had the title of "China's No. 1 Town for Navel Oranges," in Sun Zefu's view, the main selling point of Sanxi navel oranges was nothing more than large volume and low price. To break through, it was necessary to create products that "others do not have, and that are superior to others'." With these questions in mind, Sun Zefu set his sights on the new technology of keeping navel oranges fresh on the tree, which at the time had not yet been promoted nationwide. After the Spring Festival in 2003, while running his company, Sun Zefu used the money he had earned to contract 10 mu of land in Group 3 of Jinfeng Village, his hometown, and started experiments.

In 2007, Sun Zefu finally saw success. Through the keep-fresh-on-tree technology, the rate of premium fruit in the experimental base reached more than 90%, and the navel orange yield per mu reached 1.5 tons; when marketed off-peak the following year, his navel oranges sold for 3.5 yuan/kg, doubling the per-mu output value of other fruit growers.

In 2008, Sun Zefu began to mobilize other farmers and promote the keep-fresh-on-tree technology. In 2012, he led the establishment of the Jinxi Fruit Professional Cooperative in Jintang County, which developed a total of 123 member households, a navel orange planting area of 2,370 mu, and an annual output value of more than 14 million yuan... Through the radiating effect of the new technology, the citrus keep-fresh-on-tree technology bore fruit across Sichuan Province. Today, the area of keep-fresh-on-tree navel orange planting he has promoted in Sichuan Province has reached more than 100,000 mu; of the new varieties and new technologies he introduced, more than 30 have been successfully tested. Navel oranges have also become the main cash crop for increasing the income of Jintang fruit growers, with average household income increasing by about 20,000 yuan.

As a new-type professional farmer, Sun Zefu harbors an even bigger dream. He takes it as his mission to build the "Sanxi Navel Orange" brand and train more new-type professional farmers, proving to people through his own practical actions that farming will become an enviable profession.