Zhou Shenggui of Pingshan County: Seeking Dreams of the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit at the Height of a Lifelong Obsession
Zhou Shenggui is checking the fruit set on the walnut trees.
He is an ordinary Party member and a village cadre who has spent 30 years of his youth and dedication exploring the fruit tree industry, traveling all over the country, cultivating a new walnut variety that exists nowhere else in China, founding a specialized cooperative, owning more than 500 mu of his own base, driving the development of the planting industry in his area, and helping 473 impoverished households increase their incomes and get rich. He is Zhou Shenggui, a skilled fruit tree grower from Jianshe Village, Xiaxi Township, Pingshan County, Yibin City.
According to Luo Jiabang, chief agronomist of the Pingshan County Agriculture and Forestry Bureau, Zhou Shenggui of Xiaxi Township is stronger in fruit tree management techniques than many professionals and is a truly remarkable self-taught expert. He is just over 50, thin in build, and plainly dressed, looking no different from anyone else. But when you talk with him about the cultivation, management and breeding of fruit trees (whether nuts or fruits), he is truly articulate and inexhaustible, and 30 years of painstaking study and dedication have made him a veritable "expert."
From "Blaster" to "Expert"
Zhou Shenggui said that after graduating from high school in 1982, he went out to work, and later returned home to set up a fireworks and firecracker factory, and life was fairly prosperous. But fortune is fickle, and an accident at work left him with nothing. At that time, hesitation, confusion, bewilderment, and the heavy burden of supporting a family pressed him so hard he could hardly breathe.
Xiaxi Township is a place of green mountains and clear waters. Since ancient times it has produced loquats, plums, pears, peaches, apricots, tea, walnuts, chestnuts and more, but none on any scale. With no way out and elderly parents above and young children below, he thought it over again and again and decided to make something of his own small plot of land - by developing fruit. In 1998, carrying 1,000 yuan, he got on a bus to Longquanyi in Chengdu, where the loquats grown are famous across the country. "When I was introducing loquats, I ran into huge difficulties. No matter how high a price you offered, people simply would not sell grafted branches in large quantities." With great effort he found a few households willing to sell branches, but they had all been reserved. He went from one village to another. Transportation was poor then, so it was all on foot. When thirsty, he lay down by the field ridges beside the road to drink water; when hungry, he gnawed on some dry rations. One village, two villages, three villages... after countless round trips, he finally walked through several villages in Longquanyi District and found a household with the same surname. By tracing family lineage and claiming kinship, the family finally agreed to sell him more than 3,000 grafted branches of Dawuxing loquat. Overjoyed as if he had obtained a treasure, he went home and grafted all the loquat trees on his original land.
Later, Zhou Shenggui made several more trips to Chengdu and Meishan for investigations, introduced several thousand Dawuxing loquat plants, built a loquat seedling base, and planted more than 200 himself. He encountered many difficulties not only in introducing fruit trees, but even more so in planting techniques. "Because I had no knowledge or experience, many of the fruit seedlings I first introduced died, so I had to hire technicians from elsewhere to guide me. They came only 5 to 6 times a year, but each time they charged more than 1,000 yuan, which was a large sum at the time. Later I simply bought books to study on my own and consulted experienced professionals when I went out to investigate." Zhou Shenggui said that after several years of hard study and exploration, he finally became a skilled grower.
One Tree, 10 Years of Devotion
"On the mountain opposite, there is 1 large walnut tree, and beside it a small walnut tree has also grown. I have been tracking it for 10 years." Zhou Shenggui pointed to the large mountain opposite his home and told us that the walnuts borne by that large tree are large, fragrant and high in kernel yield, and every year at the seasons of flowering, fruiting and ripening, he goes up the mountain to observe. "Walnuts reproduce and change on their own. Each walnut tree is a separate variety, and the walnuts it bears change every year. Some may be very good for the first few years, but later not so good, so long-term tracking and observation are needed." He said that after a full 10 years of tracking and confirming that it was a fine walnut tree, he only then moved that small walnut tree home to plant.
It is clear that Zhou Shenggui is someone who loves fruit trees to the bone. Every time he goes out, he keeps his eyes and ears open, and whenever he discovers a fine fruit tree somewhere, he pays close attention to it. In August 2010, he went to visit relatives in Leibo County, Liangshan Prefecture, and found that on a neighbor's collapsed old earthen wall, a walnut tree bore walnuts that were not only large but also numerous, with high yield. The next year and the year after, at the same time each year, he went to take a look and found that the tree still bore very well, so he found the owner to learn the details and bought the walnuts produced by that tree. When they ripened, he went to taste them and found the flavor was also very good. So he began collecting branches to graft and propagate. "Judging from the buds of the grafted seedlings and the taste of the walnuts, it is a walnut with excellent traits resulting from a cross between a fine walnut variety and a local walnut." Zhou Shenggui said happily.
Breeding New Varieties to Get Rich Together
In front of and behind his house, walnuts, citrus, loquats, plums and more are planted everywhere, making it look just like an experimental garden. "On one walnut tree, there are 4 kinds of walnuts at the same time," he said. Year after year he searches the mountains within a hundred li for all kinds of fruit trees, discovers new varieties, brings them back and cultivates them.
"I have planted more than 1,000 walnut trees at different altitudes to observe how walnut trees at different heights perform in fruit set, kernel yield and taste, striving to discover and breed 1-3 new walnut varieties, apply for naming after appraisal by the relevant departments, and promote them locally." He said this is his biggest current goal.
Now he already has more than 1,000 mu of orchard base, more than 700 mu of landscape tree base, and more than 200 mu of nursery base, selling more than a million seedlings of loquat, plum, walnut and others each year. As a Communist Party member and village cadre, Zhou Shenggui has not forgotten his fellow villagers. In 2006, he mobilized the villagers to plant fruit. At present, the area has 2,000 mu of loquats and 2,200 mu of walnuts, with an average fruit income of 30,000 to 40,000 yuan per household. Last year, he led the establishment of the "Shenggui Walnut Development Professional Cooperative," driving 473 impoverished households. Now when villagers have any problem, they only need to give him a call, and he will unhesitatingly go help growers solve it.
"Now Yin Hong plums have been developed, but in the future Fengtang plums may have even more prospects." He recently discovered a kind of Fengtang plum in Guizhou Province with large fruit, strong sweetness and a high market price. He has already organized village and group cadres and the masses to go on field visits to learn about it, and in the future he will focus on driving the villagers to develop the walnut and Fengtang plum industries.
At the height of a lifelong obsession, a dream fulfilled on the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit. With his practical actions, Zhou Shenggui is leading the villagers forward on the road out of poverty toward prosperity.