Scientific farming replaces experience-based farming: village Party secretary leads villagers out of poverty toward prosperity

Liang Jieyan instructing villagers on planting at the base

From single-crop planting to multi-variety planting, from experience-based farming to scientific farming

Leading villagers out of poverty toward prosperity, the village Party secretary takes an unconventional path

Liang Jieyan, 54 this year, is the Party branch secretary of Qunnan Village, Tanluo Town, Xixiangtang District, Nanning City, and lately his biggest concern is citrus planting. In a few more months, the new variety of Murcott mandarins grown in the village will be ready for harvest and market, so he often visits the citrus planting base, reminds villagers of a few precautions, and checks the final "gate." Since 2013, he has led villagers in a bold transformation, no longer growing only bananas but planting Murcott mandarins, rare in Nanning, according to local conditions, using little or no pesticide, to build a citrus planting base where "when you see the fruit he grows, you think of green fruit," all so that everyone can eat "safe fruit."

　 Two innovations

From growing only sugarcane

To growing bananas and citrus

When the reporter met Liang Jieyan, he was inspecting the fruit-laden Murcott mandarin trees at the headquarters base in Dingli Slope, Qunnan Village, Tanluo Town.

"Starting from zero is truly not easy. Especially changing the villagers' original planting structure is like 'making revolution.'" Liang Jieyan said that in 2007, as a veteran returning home to start a business, he began planting on his family's 50 mu of reserved land. With no funds, no technology, and no helpers, he took his wife and children to plow the fields with a tractor, and literally turned barren hills into lush green banana fields. As the planting scale gradually expanded, he founded Guangxi Guijie Agricultural Development Co., Ltd., with banana planting as its main business.

"Farming cannot stay unchanged; you must innovate according to actual conditions." Liang Jieyan told the reporter that the first transformation was converting part of the sugarcane land to bananas. This attempt let villagers taste the sweetness of success and also gave him more to think about for the future. In 2012, a large-scale outbreak of yellow leaf disease occurred in the banana fields. Growing only bananas would mean crop failure, and to break through the bottleneck, transformation was necessary. Soon, Liang Jieyan shifted his focus from bananas to citrus and began a second bold attempt, starting Murcott mandarin planting on contracted bases, which also spurred surrounding villagers to join the ranks of citrus growers.

Continuous training

Leading villagers

Scientifically developing the planting industry

Today, Liang Jieyan's company has expanded its planting scale to nearly 10,000 mu. After becoming prosperous, through innovative models such as "company + enterprise + farmers," he has led his team to introduce and promote 7 new planting varieties and cooperate technically with surrounding banana farmers on more than 6,000 mu. "The Xixiangtang Science and Technology Bureau often gives us training, and I also paid my own way to study in Fujian, Guangdong and other places." Liang Jieyan said that only continuous learning can solve problems. He not only "recharges" himself but also teaches what he learns to villagers. Every quarter, he holds training classes, gives villagers advice on planting, and invites well-known agricultural experts to lecture. "So far we have held more than 70 Beautiful Countryside Planting Innovation Classes and Production Technology Training Classes, and also given away science and technology materials on site, benefiting many villagers."

In addition, Liang Jieyan also focuses on technological innovation. From seedling cultivation to product export and transport, everything is strictly managed according to production standards. "Developing the planting industry without relying on technology definitely will not work." He introduced that they use new technologies such as integrated water and fertilizer drip irrigation, double-row planting mode, three-protection bagging, and integrated bruise-free harvesting and transport. Among them, the drip irrigation equipment alone introduced advanced equipment from Israel and Turkey, breaking the traditional irrigation and planting-harvesting models in the planting industry and driving the banana industry of Tanluo Town toward scale, standardization and branding. The integrated water and fertilizer drip irrigation especially saves labor: one person can complete irrigation and fertilization for several hundred mu within 1-2 days, save more than 36% of fertilizer, and increase yield per mu by more than 20%.

　 Green first

"Safe fruit"

Helping villagers escape poverty and become prosperous

In Liang Jieyan's view, growing fruit is not only about pursuing maximum yield and reasonable prices; more importantly, it is about "green." He said while gesturing: "Now many crops get insects or diseases, and growers do not look for the cause and prescribe the right remedy, but directly spray pesticide. Although the insects are killed quickly, the fruit becomes unhealthy and substandard." He explained that this is also why he keeps learning. No matter what you grow, you must start from safety. "When others buy your product, what they eat is peace of mind. If everyone takes the easy way out, in the future no one will dare to eat your things."

Not only does he use pesticides cautiously, he also wants to "grade" products, that is, everyone should follow the standards for safe food and create a "green safety label." In a second-floor office in an office building at the planting base, many science and technology certificates and green certificates he has obtained are displayed. "I must ensure that the products I grow are green and environmentally friendly." Pointing to the certificates, he said that the "Tianwanwan" brand he has built over the years is all about green food, with products such as bananas, sugar mandarins and Murcott mandarins, which won consumers' affection as soon as they hit the market.

Lu Zunchang, a villager from Dingli Slope in Qunnan Village, looked at the citrus fruits, each about the size of a fist, and said that growing these green, safe fruits helped her escape poverty and become prosperous. "In the past, when we grew fruit, we relied on experience; now we rely on science and technology. The most important thing is that they are green and pesticide-free. Look, these are our 'treasures.'" She said with a smile.