Yuan Shougen, the first person to grow navel oranges in southern Jiangxi, led fruit farmers to develop the navel orange industry and become prosperous

Xinfeng fruit farmer Yuan Shougen has devoted 43 years to the cultivation of southern Jiangxi navel oranges, and today the southern Jiangxi navel orange has become a golden signboard of Jiangxi's fruit industry. Recently, a reporter interviewed Yuan Shougen.

First planting of navel oranges made a name

Yuan Shougen, 73 this year, is originally from Zhuji, Zhejiang. At the end of 1971, a 600-mu high-standard horticultural farm was built in Anxi Town, Xinfeng, and Yuan Shougen was officially transferred to serve as the only technician at the horticultural farm. Yuan Shougen believed that the local soil was suitable for growing citrus seedlings. He then single-handedly brought 156 navel orange seedlings from Shaoyang, Hunan for trial planting.

After 3 years of careful management, the navel orange trees bore their first batch of fruit, which tasted very sweet. In 1977, the 1,000 kg of navel oranges Yuan Shougen sold to the Hong Kong, China market fetched a high price.

Rapid development turned it into a "prosperity fruit"

In 2013, the total planted area of southern Jiangxi navel oranges had reached 1.83 million mu, with total output reaching 1.5 million tons. Ganzhou became the world's largest navel orange planting area and the world's third-largest in annual output, as well as the country's largest main production area. Southern Jiangxi navel oranges ranked among "China Well-Known Trademarks." The navel orange industry has directly benefited 250,000 growing households and 700,000 fruit farmers across Ganzhou. For the sake of his dream, Yuan Shougen, now in his 70s, still often steps into navel orange orchards to walk around and take a look. He said that being able to make the navel orange industry bigger and stronger and benefit millions of fruit farmers in southern Jiangxi is the happiest and most joyful thing in his life.