Orange and pomelo industry overcomes difficulties and embarks on a new journey of development
On May 15, 2015, Luo Yong shared a photo on WeChat Moments of himself pruning small branches of a pomelo tree, and invited everyone to attend the October Xuezongxi Pomelo Festival to pick and taste fresh pomelos.
Luo Yong receives an interview with a Rednet reporter.
Implementing industrial assistance was the top priority of the Provincial Party Committee General Office's current round of village-based assistance work. On the basis of carrying out in-depth and meticulous "one visit, two interviews" investigations and research, the work team decided to build a new 200-mu intercropping base of Bingtang orange (rock sugar orange) plus tea, and to renovate more than 4,000 abandoned Shatian pomelo trees in the village. Over the 7 months since the project was launched, the work team personally attended to everything, weathered wind and rain, endured countless hardships, and finally got on the right track.
Today, the newly planted Bingtang orange trees are growing vigorously, the upgraded and renovated pomelo trees are laden with heavy pomelos hanging from the branches, and the multi-floral honey from beehives kept under the pomelo trees fills the air with fragrance. Today, the village held a simple yet sweet and happy pomelo honey harvesting festival. The villagers, as joyful as if celebrating a holiday, harvested the pomelos and Shatian pomelos, packed them into boxes according to online orders, packaged them, affixed stickers bearing the Jiemuxi logo, and sent them via SF Express to all corners of the country, at a price more than 5 times that of last year. After a series of setbacks, a new village emerges like a pomelo tree in bloom.
Last night the west wind withered the green trees. Alone I climbed the high tower, and gazed to the end of the world's roads
From November 3 to 5, 2013, during an inspection tour in Hunan, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Development is the master solution for shaking off the poverty cap. Impoverished areas should proceed from reality, adapt measures to local conditions, think clearly about what to plant, what to raise, and where to increase income, and help the villagers find a good path out of poverty toward prosperity." When the work team first arrived in the village, the village cadres and villagers lacked confidence in developing industries, had many doubts, and a wait-and-see attitude was fairly common. After careful investigation and research, the work team proposed making the upgrading and renovation of Shatian pomelos and the planting of Bingtang oranges the first batch of industrial projects for the village-based assistance. The villagers did not understand and were not optimistic. The main reason was that the villagers believed that growing fruit lacked funding, technology, and markets. In addition, the abandoned Shatian pomelo trees in the village were themselves a poverty-alleviation industrial project from more than 10 years earlier, when more than 20,000 trees were planted. Now, after being cut down and damaged, only more than 4,000 abandoned trees remained. Practice had already proven it to be a failed project.
Some villagers even came to the work team's residence and frankly warned the work team that carrying out an orange and pomelo project was no different from climbing a tree to catch fish. The work team did not lose heart. In accordance with the spirit and requirements of implementing industrial poverty alleviation, they resolved to move mountains like Yu Gong, made up their minds to grind an iron rod into a needle, and vowed to overcome all difficulties and definitely get the industry developed.
In order to unify thinking and win the greatest support from the villagers, we led village Party members and cadres, villagers with a strong desire for development, and villagers with many doubts to Mayang and Luoxianchu, where fruit cultivation was done well, to investigate and learn. We held discussion meetings many times, repeatedly went deep into the villagers' homes, sat on small stools, leaned against door frames, chatted about everyday matters, listened to their concerns, understood their ideas, and learned the local dialect. The villagers treated us as their sons and brothers. As hearts drew closer, thinking gradually became unified.
At the same time, the project cooperation model was designed according to the Pareto improvement principle to dispel the villagers' concerns. After a week of patient and meticulous ideological work, more than 98% of the villagers in the whole village supported the Shatian pomelo renovation project and the Bingtang orange planting project, and signed entrusted management agreements.
The belt grows looser and looser, yet I never regret it; for her I grow haggard and wan
In Sartre's view, a person is like a seed that drifts by chance into this world, with no essence to speak of, only existence. To establish one's essence, one must prove it through one's own actions. The villagers' support was the precondition for launching the project, but to live up to the villagers' trust and do the project well, the villagers' support alone was far from enough.
First, who would operate the project? The villagers had no confidence in managing it themselves in a scattered way, nor the ability to run it well, so a company could only be established and handed over to a professional team to operate. Second, where would the funds come from? In order to catch the season, the project could not wait until poverty-alleviation funds were in place in the second half of the year before being launched. Therefore, the work team traveled back and forth to Changsha many times, sought partners, and raised nearly 200,000 yuan in start-up project funds.
To solve the technical problems of planting and management, we connected with the Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hunan Agricultural University, and the county agriculture bureau, and hired 3 experts who came to the village more than 20 times to provide on-site guidance and teach planting techniques hand by hand. To implement precision management, the work team did the work themselves, designing and making fine management cards, guiding and supervising management processes such as pruning, weeding, fertilizing, fruit thinning, and pest control, and supervising managers to carefully record management time, content, responsible persons, and so on. To broaden sales channels, e-commerce teams such as Taobao Huaihua Hall, Search Nongfang, and Suning.com were introduced. To increase the added value of products, the work team helped apply for and register the Jiemuxi brand, coordinated more than 10 reports by media such as Hunan TV, Hunan Economic TV, Hunan Daily, and Rednet, and invited well-known figures to serve as spokespersons for publicity and promotion.
In this work, the comrades of the work team ate, lived, and labored together with the villagers, sometimes even charging at the very front. After half a year, their skin peeled from sunburn twice, and each of them lost 2 rounds of weight. Team members whose homes were in Changsha sometimes found it hard to return home even once for two months in a row. When they got home, their young daughters could not even recognize their fathers.
I searched for him a thousand times in the crowd; then suddenly turning back, I found him there, where the lights were dim
The two projects of Bingtang orange and Shatian pomelo, after many twists and turns and much tempering, finally succeeded through sufficient effort. The survival rate of the Bingtang orange trees reached more than 95%, and the Shatian pomelo upgrading and renovation project ushered in the joy of a bumper harvest.
With the help of e-commerce platforms, Jiemuxi Shatian pomelo achieved more than 200,000 yuan in sales revenue on the Taobao crowdfunding platform alone. Adding offline sales, this reached 400,000 yuan, driving an income increase of 250,000 yuan for the villagers, among which 51 impoverished households increased their income by more than 130,000 yuan. The e-commerce poverty alleviation model was affirmed by the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development and the provincial government, and more than 30 media outlets including Xinhuanet, People's Daily Online, Hunan TV, and Rednet gave detailed reports. One never knows how hard something is until one has been through it; the rainbow always comes after the storm.
In the process of implementing industrial poverty alleviation, although there were hesitations, frustrations, sorrows, helplessness, and moments of retreat... we persisted and came through, and gained understanding, support, and trust, and gained growth.
The comrades of the work team underwent great changes in ideological feelings, work content, practical experience, and knowledge accumulation. They came to understand what the countryside is, what agriculture is, how farmers live, what targeted poverty alleviation should do, how to do it, and how to make it succeed. Through zero-distance contact with the villagers, in posts directly serving the villagers, doing things for the villagers to see, leading the villagers in doing the work, and guiding the villagers to prosperity, with our knowledge and sweat, we led and drove 246 households and 51 impoverished households onto the road out of poverty toward prosperity.
Last October, Xu Yousheng, member of the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee and Secretary-General of the Provincial Party Committee, came to Xuezongxi Village to inspect and guide targeted poverty alleviation and village-based assistance work. He highly affirmed the work team's work, especially industrial poverty alleviation. This was an encouragement to our work, and even more a spur.
This round of targeted poverty alleviation and village-based assistance work still has two years to go. May I ask, where is the road? The road is under our feet.