Li Guohua innovates the "company + cooperative + farmer" model to drive farmers to increase income and achieve prosperity
In the third month of spring, with temperatures gradually warming up, in the lush green lemon orchard of Shuiguan Village, Yueyang Town, Anyue County, Ziyang City, spring flower buds are blooming all over the branches. Yin Rongzhi and Fang Huaping must race against time before all the spring flowers bloom to spray all the lemon trees in the orchard with fungicides, bud-protecting agents, and insecticides. Don't underestimate this spraying of chemicals - how to mix the agents, how much to spray, which chemical to spray first, and which to spray later are all technical tasks. If you don't master them well, you'll ruin this season's harvest.
In the lemon orchard, Yin Rongzhi and Fang Huaping have another name that is called out loudly - skilled workers. From traditional farmers who work from sunrise to sunset to new-type farmers who have mastered a specialized skill, the transformation of Yin Rongzhi and Fang Huaping's role is all thanks to the standardized management and standardized production of the Anyue lemon industry by the Anyue County Golden Lemon Capital Lemon Professional Cooperative Union founded by Li Guohua.
Li Guohua is the chairman of Anyue County Yuhua Planting and Breeding Development Co., Ltd., and also the chairman of the Anyue County Golden Lemon Capital Lemon Professional Cooperative Union. For more than ten years, with the belief of "rooted in the people, prospering with the people," he built the largest lemon industrial park in the country, founded the most competitive lemon production and sales enterprise in Shuiguan Village, and created China's own lemon brand - "Ninghai" brand lemon. Not only that, he also innovated the "company + cooperative + farmer" model and formed China's largest lemon professional cooperative, radiating and driving more than 17,000 farming households to increase income and achieve prosperity.
Recently, the General Office of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee issued the "Decision on Naming the Third Batch of National Model Sites for Learning from Lei Feng Activities and National Post Model Lei Feng Martyrs," and Li Guohua was named a third batch national post model Lei Feng martyr.
Li Guohua spraying insecticide and fungicide in the lemon orchard
From "layman" to "Lemon King" - the magnificent transformation of a businessman
Before 2000, Li Guohua had been engaged in trade work in Chengdu. At that time, he could be considered a somewhat famous "nouveau riche" in the surrounding villages. In 2000, during a visit back to his hometown, Li Guohua recognized the enormous development potential of the lemon industry in his hometown. So, he brought 200,000 yuan scraped together from friends and resolutely decided to return home to start a business. He signed a 190-mu land lease contract with Qianhua Village, Pianyan Township, and established Anyue County Yuhua Planting and Breeding Development Co., Ltd., engaging in lemon cultivation and fresh fruit sales.
From doing business to switching to being a farmer, at first Li Guohua was a bit "unaccustomed." Unable to afford technical personnel, he learned techniques himself; without experience, he ran to others' orchards every day, chatting up the management staff... Four or five years later, the lemon orchard he painstakingly managed yielded a great harvest, and he saved up his first bucket of lemon gold.
"Support the orchard with the orchard, develop in gradients." This was the "eight-character principle" Li Guohua set for himself at the beginning of developing the lemon industry. Starting lemon cultivation in 2000, for more than ten years, he took one step at a time, insisting on expanding only one lemon base of about 200 mu per year (each time), "but all bases are planted according to unified standards," Li Guohua said.
From the initial 190-mu lemon orchard to the current 1,700-mu lemon orchard, relying on solid, down-to-earth hard work step by step, Li Guohua completed the magnificent transformation from "layman" to "Lemon King."
From "layman" to "Lemon King," Li Guohua, who had tasted the "sweetness" of lemons, did not stop his development pace. In his heart, he was always constantly planning for the long-term development of Anyue lemons.
In 2006, Li Guohua began preparing the first lemon professional owner association - the Shenghong Lemon Industry Association, intending to take the path of unified agricultural input procurement, unified product sales, and unified technical guidance. "Only when everyone twists into one rope and concentrates advantageous resources together can we grasp more initiative in competition," Li Guohua said.
In 2007, Li Guohua changed the Shenghong Lemon Industry Association to the Jindadi Lemon Professional Cooperative, training and imparting lemon cultivation and management techniques to members, providing market information, and then having members guide farmers to change their concepts and carry out scientific planting.
In 2008, Li Guohua created China's own lemon brand - "Ninghai" brand lemon, which gained recognition from customs, entry-exit inspection and quarantine bureaus, and other departments, proudly going abroad.
Establishing a union to promote standardized management and standardized production of the Anyue lemon industry
In order to expand the lemon planting scale, enhance market competitiveness, and drive more farmers to increase income and achieve prosperity, in June 2011, Li Guohua innovated the "company + cooperative + farmer" model and formed China's largest lemon professional cooperative - the Anyue County Golden Lemon Capital Lemon Professional Cooperative Union.
When summarizing his more than ten years of experience in lemon cultivation, Li Guohua said that agricultural development has a long investment cycle, slow returns, and high risks. "The union implements risk prevention mechanisms such as unified technical guidance, unified agricultural input supply, unified purchasing, unified storage, unified processing, unified sales, and secondary profit returns, maximizing members' interests and minimizing risks," Li Guohua said.
The union is jointly composed of 17 lemon professional cooperatives and 2 agricultural development companies, with a lemon planting area of 38,000 mu, radiating and driving more than 17,000 surrounding farming households to increase income and achieve prosperity, achieving an annual per capita income increase of more than 4,000 yuan.
In the spring lemon orchard, it is the busy season for sterilizing spring flowers, protecting buds, and killing insects. Yin Rongzhi and Fang Huaping, wearing straw hats and masks, skillfully shuttle through the lush green lemon orchard. Sweat penetrates the dermis, accumulates on the skin surface, and as gravity increases, they begin to slowly slide down from cheeks and foreheads, dripping onto clothes and falling into the soil. "Take a rest when you're tired," Li Guohua reminds Yin Rongzhi and Fang Huaping from time to time. As he speaks, Li Guohua takes the spray tube from Yin Rongzhi's hands and starts spraying chemicals in the orchard himself.
"A single lemon, from flowering to reaching consumers' hands, goes through more than ten cumbersome processes," Li Guohua said. Each process requires a large amount of labor. "For this lemon orchard alone, the annual labor usage reaches 15,000 person-times."
In the lemon orchard, Yin Rongzhi and Fang Huaping have another loudly called name - skilled workers. After the establishment of the Anyue County Golden Lemon Capital Lemon Professional Cooperative Union, training sessions such as modern lemon standardized planting technology training and lemon technology management training are held several times a year. Those who come to attend these lectures include not only lemon planting owners but also many villagers who usually work in the lemon orchards. Through learning, many villagers began to be allocated to different technical work types - weeding, pruning, spraying, bagging, harvesting, pest and disease identification, etc. According to the different technical work types, their daily labor pay ranges from 70 yuan to 200 yuan per day. "During the slack farming season, I work in the lemon orchard. Over a year, just the wages from the lemon orchard amount to more than 10,000 yuan," Yin Rongzhi said.
Establishing the first cooperative labor union in Ziyang City
After the establishment of the union, because each professional cooperative paid farmers different wages, disputes often occurred. "At the beginning of the union's establishment, it operated in an enterprise-style manner, and a labor union was indispensable," Li Guohua said.
In 2012, with Li Guohua's support, the union established a labor union, which was also the first cooperative labor union in Ziyang City, responsible for negotiating and setting work standards, distributing benefits for annual festivals, resolving labor disputes, and helping farmers in difficulty.