Xu Wen of Zhu De's Hometown Leads Villagers to Prosperity Through Citrus
Xu Wen, now over seventy years old
In Ma'an Town, Yilong County, whenever citrus is mentioned, local villagers think of Xu Wen, a large-scale citrus grower from Group 4 of Yulan Village under the Zhu De Former Residence Management Committee. Now over seventy, Xu Wen has worked painstakingly in the world of citrus cultivation for thirty years and has formed an inseparable bond with citrus.
Over the years, he has gone from an uneducated farmer with nothing to his name to a fruit champion who understands technology, is good at business and knows how to manage. In particular, his spirit of not being content with wealth alone but leading his fellow villagers to prosperity together has become a much-told story around Ma'an. Under his demonstration and leadership, citrus production in Yulan and the surrounding Linlang and Caijiaping villages has grown into a major industry, setting the surrounding people on the road to shared prosperity.
Building a Business Through Hardship: Planting Citrus to Dig Out the Roots of Poverty
In the 1990s, Xu Wen, who worked at the tea and fruit station of the Yilong County Agriculture Bureau, was dismissed for violating the family planning policy and returned to his hometown to make a living on his own. Looking at the empty farmhouse courtyard and the weed-covered cropland, Xu Wen was at a loss. After much thought, Xu Wen decided to use his expertise to plant large numbers of citrus trees around his house and in abandoned fields, develop the family economy and strive to dig out the roots of poverty within three to five years. He acted as soon as he decided: Xu Wen took out all his family's savings and traveled elsewhere to buy back more than 1,200 citrus saplings. Clearing wasteland, tilling the soil, digging planting holes, fertilizing, planting trees and watering were all done by Xu Wen alone.
After 3 years of painstaking cultivation, the citrus trees began to bear fruit. However, the varieties were poor and the market prospects were not good. Xu Wen adjusted the structure of his citrus varieties and regrafted new varieties: ponkan and seedless mandarin. The next year, some citrus trees began to bear fruit, and when Xu Wen and his wife saw that their hard work had been rewarded, they were especially happy in their hearts. Later, Xu Wen's citrus output grew higher and higher. Every year from the ninth lunar month to the end of the following March, he would carry a load of citrus to nearby market towns to sell, earning more than 20,000 yuan each year. From then on, Xu Wen gradually escaped poverty and moved toward prosperity.
Led by Technology: A Winner in the Ever-Changing Market
Xu Wen humbly sought advice from experts and teachers at the county tea and fruit station, regrafting onto the original trunks new varieties that sold well on the market and tasted delicious, including Taiwan ponkan, Ehime 30 and Ehime 38, and newly planted more than 2,000 high-yielding citrus trees such as Harumi, Xingjin No. 1 and low-seed Murcott. He regularly reported information on citrus growth back to the tea and fruit station of the Agriculture Bureau, regularly hired experienced teachers to come to his orchard for technical guidance, and discussed the causes of pests and diseases and prevention and control measures. Xu Wen's basic skills in citrus cultivation became better and better, and he became proficient in pruning, grafting, fertilizing and pest and disease control. From this he also learned new information and grasped new trends in market development.
Every autumn and winter, ordinary citrus piles up like mountains on the market, while Xu Wen's early-maturing citrus is deeply loved by buyers for its thin peel, sweet taste, abundant juice, crisp and tender flesh and strong mandarin aroma. Large numbers of traders and customers come to his door on their own and enter Xu Wen's orchard to pick the fruit. Every year in March and April, Xu Wen's late-maturing citrus goes on the market and attracts even more tourists visiting Zhu De's former residence, who buy it by the basket and the hamper. At this point, Xu Wen had secured a firm foothold in the ever-changing market and become a big winner, with annual citrus sales revenue alone reaching more than 100,000 yuan. At the same time, Xu Wen used the orchard to vigorously develop breeding: raising chickens, ducks and geese among the trees, with nearly a hundred or more sold each year, and together with chicken, duck and goose eggs bringing in nearly 10,000 yuan a year. Xu Wen also used citrus flowers to raise nearly 10 hives of bees, harvesting nearly a hundred jin of citrus flower honey each year, with income reaching 10,000 yuan.
Giving Back with Gratitude: Leading Fellow Villagers to Prosper Together
As a Communist Party member, Xu Wen did not think of himself. He was determined to pass on his experience of becoming wealthy to his neighbors and fellow villagers without taking a single cent in return, as a way of repaying their kindness. He taught villagers hand by hand how to choose varieties, plant saplings, prune useless branches, apply fertilizer and graft superior seedlings, patiently explained knowledge about citrus pest and disease control, helped fruit growers carry out renovation of low-yield orchards and thinning of dense trees, thinning where crowded and leaving space where sparse, and spread new citrus management techniques, new information and new ideas to fruit growers.
In just a few short years, he radiated and drove the entire group to plant more than 200 mu of citrus, mainly high-quality varieties such as Nanfeng tangerine and Harumi, with an annual output of more than 200,000 jin. Seeing that Xu Wen had achieved a moderately prosperous life by planting citrus, people in the surrounding Linlang and Caijiaping villages also came to ask for advice and requested that Xu Wen open a path to prosperity for them, and Xu Wen taught them techniques without reservation. This year, taking advantage of the great opportunity of targeted poverty alleviation, Groups 5 and 6 of Yulan Village newly planted 350 mu of new citrus varieties, which are expected to all bear fruit within two years, and per capita income can increase by more than 2,000 yuan.
Understanding technology, good at business, skilled in management and even more willing to help others, Xu Wen led ordinary people out of poverty and onto the road to prosperity. Today, entering Yulan Village, the small Western-style buildings set off by the emerald green citrus trees make people feel that this place is no different from the suburbs of a city. This is the product of villagers becoming wealthy, and all the more a microcosm of developing citrus to become rich and build a new countryside under Xu Wen's leadership.