Pan Xiaoping Leads Local People onto the Path to Prosperity

On the barren hills of Bahe Village, Watang Town, Gangnan District, Guigang City, 1,000 mu of citrus saplings dot the wasteland in a strikingly eye-catching way. This is the first barren-hill orchard developed by the Guigang City Fengju Fruit Planting Professional Cooperative, where the first batch of prosperity-bearing fruit trees has been planted.

"At present, 360 mu of this orchard belongs to the cooperative, and 670 mu comes from nearby residents who have joined in; the cooperative provides saplings free of charge and handles technical follow-up," said Pan Xiaoping, chairman of the Guigang City Fengju Fruit Planting Professional Cooperative. The cooperative was just established this year and began planting citrus saplings. At present, the cooperative mainly cultivates and sells citrus saplings and encourages local people to use barren hills to plant fruit trees.

The cooperative adopts a base + farmer model. By giving saplings to nearby farmers free of charge, it encourages people to join the cooperative, and farmers pay for the saplings only after the fruit trees bear fruit three years later. So far, the cooperative has distributed more than 40,000 saplings to farmers in Bahe Village, Watang Town, and Jindong Village, Qiaoxu Town.

Pan Xiaoping is from Donglong Town, Qintang District. Before founding the fruit planting professional cooperative, she had worked for many years in the construction formwork industry. In recent years, Pan Xiaoping and her spouse began growing citrus in Guangdong Province and Guilin City, with good momentum, and citrus has basically maintained a purchase price of 8 yuan to 9 yuan per kg. At present, Pan Xiaoping has already received orders for the citrus in both places at no less than 8 yuan per kg.

Having tasted the sweetness of growing citrus elsewhere, Pan Xiaoping began to think about expanding the scale of production, and so she thought of returning home to start a business. Pan Xiaoping found that at present, Guigang City has relatively little citrus planting and large room for market development. After traveling through mountain villages in three districts, Pan Xiaoping selected Bahe Village and its surrounding areas, which have a microclimate.

"This land is good. The unique microclimate is suitable for growing citrus. After two years of hard work in management, farmers can enjoy long-term returns." Looking ahead to the cooperative's prospects, Pan Xiaoping is full of confidence. According to the fruit tree growth cycle, saplings planted this winter and next spring will begin to bear fruit and go into production in 2018. Calculated at 3,000 kg to 5,000 kg per mu in a normal year and 8 yuan per kg, after the fruit trees go into production, an annual return of 20,000 to 50,000 yuan is expected. Before the fruit trees generate returns, farmers can also interplant a variety of crops to secure short-term income.

Pan Xiaoping said that 50 farming households have now joined the cooperative, planting nearly 700 mu of saplings in total. The cooperative has provided free planting training five times to the growers.

While developing fruit planting, the cooperative also directly helps with targeted poverty alleviation. Bahe Village is a poverty-stricken village and has been included in Guigang City's 2016 goal of shaking off poverty. Through paired assistance to farming households, the cooperative provides more than 60 jobs to help poor households increase income and escape poverty. "The orchard often needs people to work. During busy times, dozens of people are needed every day. Many rural women left behind in the villages are willing to come here to work," Pan Xiaoping said. The work in the orchard suits the rural labor force, especially women left behind, who can balance work and housework.

"The cooperative will encourage more farmers to grow citrus, form a deep-processing industrial chain, and truly lead local people to prosperity." Pan Xiaoping explained that after the fruit goes into production, the cooperative will adopt a base consignment sales model to ensure there are no worries about selling the fruit. Moreover, as the planting base expands and the industrial chain is completed, more employment opportunities will be provided, creating an industrial effect.