Monk fruit cultivation paves a sweet road to prosperity
As an important support for poverty alleviation through cultivation in Guilin, Guangxi, the "Jifusi Monk Fruit Industry Targeted Poverty Alleviation Project" has achieved targeted poverty alleviation by optimizing and integrating poverty alleviation resources through a monk fruit industry model of "company + standardized cultivation." Each green monk fruit has built a bridge out of poverty for impoverished households in Guilin.
"Sweet fruit" draws a blueprint for prosperity
Wu Yongping's family was formerly an impoverished household in Jintang Village, Daxijiang Town, Quanzhou County, Guilin City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, but today his monk fruit cultivation techniques are second to none in the entire village. Last year, he planted nearly 18 mu of monk fruit, with more than 160 plants per mu, and each plant bore more than 100 fruits, showing excellent growth. According to the signed purchase contract, with each monk fruit priced at 0.5 yuan, each mu can generate an income of more than 7,500 yuan. After deducting costs, the net profit per mu is more than 6,000 yuan. With more than 2,800 plants, the annual income from monk fruit exceeded 110,000 yuan, with a profit of about 70,000 yuan. This year, he plans to expand the planting scale further. Deng Chunfa of Guangfu Village in the same town planted 800 monk fruit seedlings last year, with an annual income of about 40,000 yuan and a profit of about 30,000 yuan. Today, monk fruit cultivation is thriving throughout Quanzhou County.
Quanzhou County is characterized by layered peaks and clear waters and lush mountains. However, due to inconvenient transportation, poor information flow, and backward development awareness, the villagers' income grew slowly, and they remained in poverty for a long time. Through cultivating monk fruit, the villagers achieved prosperity and escaped poverty, turning barren hills into green mountains, wasteland into fertile fields, and fields into gardens. Whenever they mention the guide who led them to escape poverty together - Guilin Jifusi Biotechnology Co., Ltd. of Guangxi - the villagers all give a thumbs-up and praise them endlessly.
Since 2016, following the development model of "funds follow the poor, the poor follow the capable, the capable follow industry, and industry follows the market," and adhering to the working principle of "poverty alleviation starts with building wisdom; relief is given to the poor, not the lazy," Quanzhou County, in its targeted poverty alleviation work, combined the county's climate and geographical conditions and, after extensive research, determined a structure centered on driving the masses out of poverty through the monk fruit industry, supplemented by other poverty alleviation methods, to advance targeted poverty alleviation work in depth.
To ensure the smooth implementation of the monk fruit industry and to conduct market risk assessments and guarantee sales channels, Quanzhou County signed a monk fruit cultivation cooperation agreement with Jifusi. The company is responsible for providing seedlings and purchasing back the fruit, and is responsible for technical guidance throughout the process. A guaranteed minimum purchase price was also specified, providing strong market protection for the sale of monk fruit.
With these guarantees, impoverished households in Quanzhou County actively participated, developing monk fruit cultivation in the form of "company + base + specialized cooperative + farming households." By pairing with specialized cooperatives and under the leadership of economically capable people, they embarked on the road to prosperity out of poverty.
In terms of the forms of escaping poverty through monk fruit, farming households could either choose to cultivate it themselves or transfer land for large-scale contracted cultivation. The government provided policy support and technical training, and adopted measures combining centralized training by hired professional technicians with on-site guidance. The labor force of all impoverished households was also pooled to establish a "labor export cooperative," with planting sites set up in various cultivation areas. Each planting site identified "targeted" impoverished households from the "labor export cooperative," and all labor needed at that planting site was undertaken entirely by the "targeted" impoverished households, increasing these households' farming income.
The monk fruit industry introduced through cooperation with Jifusi is another new industry for escaping poverty and achieving prosperity in Guilin after red-fleshed kiwifruit and Cangxi pear. It can form a healthy complement to the kiwifruit industry: monk fruit can be planted in the first 3 years before the kiwifruit orchard begins production or during the recovery period of a diseased orchard, and facilities such as kiwifruit trellises can be shared. The output value per mu can reach 5,000-10,000 yuan.
A sweet business helps farmers escape poverty and increase income
Jifusi was founded in 2004 by its chairman, Lan Fusheng. It is a Chinese-controlled, Sino-foreign joint venture technology enterprise specializing in the entire monk fruit industry chain. Since its founding, Jifusi has taken "benefiting agriculture, rural areas, and farmers; enriching the public; and conducting business with virtue" as its mission, committed to building a world-advanced monk fruit supply chain that provides high-quality monk fruit sweeteners for the food industry, and actively benefiting farmers, especially impoverished households lacking sources of income in the impoverished mountainous areas of northern Guilin. Over the years, Jifusi has encouraged farmers to grow monk fruit through protected-price order buybacks. It has successively promoted the cultivation of more than 70,000 mu of monk fruit in 156 natural villages across more than 10 counties, including Longsheng, Lingui, Lingchuan, Quanzhou, Xing'an, Lipu, Yongfu, Gongcheng, Guanyang, and Ziyuan, involving more than 8,000 farming households, including more than 2,500 impoverished farming households in 62 impoverished villages. It has directly created more than 500 million yuan in local economic income and brought 290 million yuan in net income to farming households.
In 2014, Lan Fusheng personally led a team to Jiajiang Township's Raowan Village in Quanzhou County, Dingjiang Town's Chijiang Village in Lingchuan County, and several other impoverished villages to understand the situation and conduct on-site inspections, gaining a detailed understanding of village conditions, people's livelihoods, and planting structures. On the basis of on-site inspections and a comprehensive understanding of conditions in all aspects, Jifusi maintained frequent contact with these impoverished areas and formed a assistance pairing with Raowan Village in Jiajiang Township, Quanzhou County. In response to impoverished households' lack of startup funds for monk fruit cultivation, Jifusi, through preliminary investigations of their actual conditions, helped them select suitable monk fruit cultivation areas, provided seedlings free of charge or for a small fee, and advanced production materials such as trellises and shade nets for impoverished households. Over the years, Jifusi has signed protected-price buyback contracts with farming households in impoverished villages in counties such as Gongcheng, Longsheng, Ziyuan, Lingchuan, and Lingui, implementing preferential support and providing a series of preferential support measures such as advanced allocation and delivery of seedlings, fertilizer, pesticides, and trellis materials, with fee reductions and exemptions amounting to more than 2 million yuan. At the same time, it provides technical guidance, demonstrations, and training throughout the process, and deducts the advanced costs from the payment after the monk fruit harvest, solving the difficulty poor households face in getting started.
Since its founding, Jifusi has actively participated in public welfare activities and supported the education of impoverished rural students in various ways. For example, it took the initiative to cooperate with Guangxi Technical Vocational College to establish Jifusi order classes, annually funding more than 30,000 yuan for stipends, scholarships, and development funds for the order classes, helping more children realize their university dreams. To help some rural university students complete their studies, it has spent more than 200,000 yuan cumulatively. After these students graduate, Jifusi will give them priority in hiring, solving their employment problems.