A farmer in Longkou, Shandong, harbors a dream of growing southern fruits
In Hanluan Village, Lutou Town, Longkou, there is a farmer with a passion. Walking into his greenhouse, the scene before your eyes is striking - dragon fruit, papaya, passion fruit, lemon, banana... a variety of southern fruits growing together in one greenhouse, each striving to outshine the others, as if you were transported to a southern land...
Why do we say he has a passion?
This villager is named Li Chunshan, 41 years old this year. We say he has a passion because he is a farmer carrying a planting dream. He hopes to turn his own orchard into a lush tropical orchard full of flowers and fruits, and to make southern fruits flourish with fragrance across the land of Longkou.
Let's see how his southern land dream is being realized.
Career change: from fruit vendor to new farmer
The reporter walked into Li Chunshan's greenhouse, where he was clearing the shoots sprouting from the dragon fruit plants. He said there are nearly 4,000 dragon fruit trees here, and every day he makes a round through the greenhouse. He knows the condition of the fruit trees like the back of his hand and has deep feelings for the orchard. Talking about why he planted so many dragon fruit, Li Chunshan said it stems from his southern land dream.
In his early years, Li Chunshan was a fruit vendor, mainly selling southern fruits. After extensive surveys of fruit markets in Qingdao, Zibo, Yantai and other places, he found that southern fruits had strong development prospects in Longkou and would become a hot spot for residents' consumption in the future. The image of southern orchards filled with fragrant melons and fruits in all four seasons made him linger with fondness. In 2015, Li Chunshan decided to change careers, investing more than 1 million yuan to build a greenhouse on vacant land south of Majia Village in Lutou Town, and began growing red-fleshed dragon fruit introduced from Taiwan, China.
In order to grow dragon fruit well, Li Chunshan put in a great deal of effort. He spent heavily to buy the finest seedlings, and whenever he had time, he would go to the main dragon fruit production areas in Guangdong Province to learn from masters and study the most advanced planting and management experience from local fruit farmers.
Exploration: gradually becoming an expert in dragon fruit cultivation
Li Chunshan, who had just changed careers, was full of enthusiasm, but had a bucket of cold water poured on him. In the winter of 2015, due to the large temperature difference between north and south and the lack of proper insulation measures, more than 400 dragon fruit seedlings in the greenhouse froze to death, causing a direct loss of more than 10,000 yuan. This accident dealt Li Chunshan a heavy blow, but with the encouragement of his family, he reignited his fighting spirit and learned a lesson from it. In early 2016, he improved the greenhouse insulation measures, installed a boiler, and used artificial heating during low-temperature weather to prevent the seedlings from freezing. Since then, the situation of frozen seedlings has never happened again.
In cultivation, Li Chunshan became even more meticulous, constantly learning experience from various professional planting websites and technical discussion groups. In order to better exchange experience in growing southern fruits with others, Li Chunshan also changed his WeChat name to "Mr. Southern Fruit." At the same time, he planted papaya, passion fruit, lemon, banana and other southern fruits in the gaps in the field, beginning his own "southern fruit experiment."
Heaven rewards the diligent. Li Chunshan's efforts bore fruit. In October 2016, the dragon fruit ripened one after another. Compared with the non-local dragon fruit sold on the market, his dragon fruit were larger, juicier and sweeter, and were favored by picking visitors, selling for 30 to 35 yuan per jin. In this season alone, Li Chunshan's income was nearly 60,000 yuan.
Having tasted success, Li Chunshan was even more motivated. He firmly believes that only modern agriculture is the direction of future agricultural development, and that specialty agricultural products are the magic weapon for farmers to increase income and become prosperous.
This year, he will continue to expand the dragon fruit planting area, continue his southern fruit planting experiment, build Longkou's largest dragon fruit planting and picking base, and continue weaving his southern land dream.