A people's congress deputy from the orchard leads his fellow villagers to prosperity
On January 7, the reporter walked into the Ruinong Farmers' Professional Cooperative Union of Gao'an City. This place is also Pan Guoran's people's congress deputy workstation, and now 16 cooperatives have joined the union to develop together. In 2015, the honey tangerines produced in Gao'an had already sold for more than 4 yuan, up from a market price of less than 2 yuan. Behind the fruit growers' prosperity, the proposals submitted to the people's congress on behalf of farmers by Pan Guoran, a people's congress deputy, played an important role in driving this forward.
"Last year I successfully obtained a loan of 2 million yuan, using 1 million yuan to build a grape orchard and 1 million yuan to contract a fish pond, which provided the funding guarantee for me to expand the scale of my farm!" said Chen Haozhong, head of the Mengli Shuixiang Farm in Panjia Village, Huibu Town, Gao'an City. He said he had always wanted to make his farm bigger and stronger, and it was the improvement of the financial service system for farmers' cooperatives that let him realize this dream. "I want to thank our deputy Pan Guoran. For many years, he has won truly good policies for us farmers and led us to prosperity!"
Pan Guoran, the man Chen Haozhong mentioned, is a deputy to the Jiangxi Provincial People's Congress and has been awarded the title of "National Model Worker." He is currently the main person in charge of the Ruinong Farmers' Professional Cooperative Union of Gao'an City. In 1995, the stone quarry resources were exhausted, and Panjia Village, Pan Guoran's hometown, lost the income of more than 2,000 yuan per household per year that had come from stone quarry resources, leaving the villagers depressed with no way to increase their income. Seeing this situation, Pan Guoran, a staunch man who had graduated from high school and was then the accountant of the villagers' group, fell into deep thought. After pondering for some time, he put forward to the villagers the idea of establishing an orchard. In the winter of 1996, he planted the first 200 mu of Huanghua pears. Pan Guoran became famous in Gao'an City for leading Panjia Village to grow pears and become prosperous. Fruit growers from various places came one after another to ask for advice. Moved by this, he realized the necessity of forming a cooperative organization for fruit growers and providing services to them. In 2005, Pan Guoran gathered the major fruit industry households of the whole city to establish the "Huibu Town Fruit Industry Association of Gao'an City"; in 2007, on this basis, the "Yinong Fruit Industry Professional Cooperative of Gao'an City, Jiangxi Province" was registered and established. In 2013, 16 farmers' professional cooperatives, including the Yinong Fruit Industry Professional Cooperative of Gao'an City, the Shuanghui Vegetable Professional Cooperative, and the Yufeng Beef Cattle Breeding Professional Cooperative, jointly registered and established the Ruinong Farmers' Professional Cooperative Union of Gao'an City. Pan Guoran said that establishing the union can promote healthy development and avoid vicious competition among peers. Last year the union also set up an e-commerce base and sold more than 10,000 jin of honey tangerines online at a price of more than 4 yuan per jin.
As a people's congress deputy, Pan Guoran holds a large stack of proposals submitted to the people's congress, including proposals for farmers to participate in old-age insurance and for improving the financial service system for farmers' cooperatives... After each of these proposals was issued, each reply solved a large number of practical problems for local farmers. "As a people's congress deputy, I want to speak for our farmers, bring their voices to the government, and let farmers live happy and prosperous lives!" Pan Guoran said.