Liu Guanquan: A Leader on the Path to Prosperity for Villagers

When the reporter met Liu Guanquan in the loquat groves of Huilongqiao Village, he was with villagers thinning fruit and bagging the loquat trees of 70-year-old He Xinyu's family.

Liu Guanquan is the Party Committee secretary of Huilongqiao Village in Guangyang Town. Since the launch of the Party member volunteer service team activities, while doing his own job well, he has taken the initiative to visit and assist elderly people living alone and impoverished disabled people, regularly carry out technical training for prosperity, and conduct loquat planting assistance actions.

Responding to Policy and Taking the Lead in Planting Loquats

In the 1980s, Liu Guanquan, then a rural teacher, came to Huilongqiao Village, met his current wife, and put down roots here ever since. "When the policy on planting loquats came down, many villagers resisted it at first," Liu Guanquan recalled.

At that time, as a teacher, Liu Guanquan was considered "forward-thinking" among the villagers, and he actively responded to the policy by starting to plant loquats. "I kept telling the neighbors and acquaintances in the village that the government supporting everyone in planting loquats was a tremendous good thing, that this was a new path to prosperity," Liu Guanquan said. "Back then, being scolded by villagers was an everyday occurrence. I didn't take it to heart. When I saw villagers who didn't understand the policy, I would still go up and try to persuade them. In order to get more villagers to join the ranks of loquat growers, I was the first to plant loquats on my family's land. Only facts can let everyone see hope and understand that my persuasion wasn't just 'empty talk.'"

Nine Years of Persistence: A Large Number of Local Loquat Technicians Emerge

In 2003, Liu Guanquan became a member of the village's two committees. From then on, Liu Guanquan devoted himself entirely to how to help villagers increase their income through loquat planting and how to develop the village's economy. "I knew that to develop the loquat base well, small-scale efforts wouldn't amount to much. We had to cultivate our own local technicians belonging to the villagers themselves." Liu Guanquan found experts from the Municipal Science and Technology Commission through the town government.

"At that time, all the roads in the village were cement roads, and the experts were unwilling to come; the villagers' educational level wasn't high enough either, and the experts always had to explain many times before the villagers could understand." In 2007, in order to have experts from the Municipal Science Association teach villagers loquat planting techniques, Liu Guanquan contacted and requested the experts more than ten times, coordinated the experts' schedules, and finally settled on inviting the Science Association experts to the village on the 20th of every month to teach loquat planting techniques. This persistence lasted 9 years. Now, on the 20th of every month, no matter wind or rain, the villagers all arrive on time at the village training site to earnestly study planting techniques. At present, more than 100 local loquat technicians have emerged in Huilongqiao Village. Ordinary planting problems can all be readily solved by the technicians.

Improving Quality: Personally Delivering Medicine to Villagers

Cultivating local technicians was the first step for the Huilongqiao Village loquat base to reach a new level. Then, Liu Guanquan worked hard to contact the Institute of Plant Ecological Engineering of China Agricultural University and the project expert group of the Senior Professors Association of Southwest University, because how to improve loquat quality was an important step in making Guangyang loquat famous and developing and raising the village's economic income.

The senior botanist Professor Huang Maiping of Southwest University is already 80 years old. In order to invite the old expert to the village to explain loquat planting and the correct use of edible selenium to everyone, Liu Guanquan would go to Huang Maiping's home to pick him up every year when the time came, and also went to Southwest University to transport planting medicine for the villagers. "Ensuring that the villagers' 100 mu of loquat trees all have edible selenium available is no small matter. Picking up and dropping off Professor Huang and transporting medicine has become a habit over so many years." Liu Guanquan said embarrassedly, "Although I'm a bit tired myself, it's nothing much, but being able to save most villagers some trouble makes me very happy inside."

Now, loquat income already accounts for 90% of the whole village's economy, and villagers can earn close to 100,000 yuan per year at most. "Some villagers have built new houses, some have bought new cars. The lives of the people in the village get better year by year, and the laughter gets more year by year." Speaking of the changes in the villagers' lives, Liu Guanquan smiled with comfort.

A Village Is a Family

This year, 70-year-old He Xinyu's spouse passed away, and her children are not by her side either, so she stays home alone year-round. During the Spring Festival, the old woman broke her hand, but as the time for thinning loquat fruit arrived, she was very anxious because she could not work due to her health. After learning of the situation, Liu Guanquan came to He Xinyu's loquat field and began thinning the fruit: "One fruit corresponds to 5 leaves. Any more and the nutrients get spread out, and the loquats won't grow well." Before long, villagers from the "Mutual Aid Home" also came over to help thin the fruit together.

Just after finishing thinning the fruit, Liu Guanquan didn't have time to go home for a drink of water and went straight to He Xinyu's home. "Is your hand any better? Don't worry about the loquat fruit thinning. Everyone is helping you with it." As soon as he entered He Xinyu's home, Liu Guanquan began comforting her. Time passed little by little, and while chatting with the old woman about everyday matters, it was soon mealtime, but no matter how the old woman tried to keep him, Liu Guanquan still had to leave. As he left, he reminded her: "Remember to bring your medical invoices to the village office one day to get reimbursed."

Liu Guanquan told the reporter that Huilongqiao Village is one big family, and the villagers are all one another's relatives. Our goal is to achieve "small matters don't leave the group, big matters don't leave the village." Our goal is for the whole village to prosper together and be happy together.