Retired department-level official politely declines organizational assignment to go grow citrus
On November 21, 2006, Fan Jingchao, then director of the Provincial Agricultural Construction Office and director of the Provincial Disaster Relief Office, and his delegation inspected the basic construction of farmland water conservancy in Anju District, Suining City.
Fan Jingchao inspects the picking route before the fruit-picking festival.
Fan Jingchao's citrus is ripe. Eight years of hard work have finally paid off. Everyone can imagine the hardships of starting a business. But for this former department-level official, who started from scratch after retirement and returned to his hometown to start a business, the hardships are even harder for ordinary people to fathom. His wife's long-awaited happy retirement life was shattered by Old Fan's entrepreneurial plan, and she was once so angry she wanted a divorce; Old Fan sold his house to raise funds to expand the scale of his business, and his wife was so angry again that she threatened divorce... But his wife was just talking; in the end, she stayed by Old Fan's side on his entrepreneurial journey all along. At present, Fan Jingchao's citrus planting area has reached 10,100 mu, and he has always followed Chu Shijian, who started a business in his old age. He proudly says: "I have more citrus varieties than Chu Shijian!"
Fan Jingchao
Age: 68. Native place: Jingyan County, Leshan City
Fan Jingchao once served as director of the Disaster Relief Office of the Sichuan Provincial Government, executive deputy director of the Provincial Department of Agriculture, and deputy director of the Provincial Department of Water Resources.
After retirement, he returned to his hometown to start a business and grow citrus. In 2010, he initiated the establishment of the Jinyan County Fansheng Hybrid Citrus Professional Cooperative, and Fan Jingchao is currently the party branch secretary of the cooperative.
January 9, Fanrong Village, Jiyi Township, Jingyan County, Leshan City. The cross-year smog finally dissipated, and a winter rain made the air even fresher. The village was bustling with many prominent people. A "fruit-picking festival" was being held here. The organizer was an agricultural cooperative, and its secretary was Fan Jingchao.
Fan Jingchao is quite prestigious in the village. Some call him "Director Fan," some call him "Department Head Fan," and some call him "Secretary Fan." He greeted people, grinning broadly. This former department-level official would turn 68 in another 19 days. Eight years ago, he began his entrepreneurial journey, and now, he is harvesting the "fruit" that took eight years to grow.
Entrepreneurship · Dream
Returning home to start a business, declining an organizational assignment
January 7, sunny. Departing from Jingyan County seat, heading north along National Highway 213, after 8 km of asphalt road comes the market town of Jiyi Township. East of the market town is Fanrong Village. A concrete road extends onward, and at the village entrance stands a paifang archway - "Citrus Dream Garden." Going further in, there is a brand-new new-village residential cluster, with small Western-style buildings with gray tiles and white walls particularly eye-catching, and many courtyards even have cars parked in them.
On both sides of the concrete road are vast stretches of continuous orchards, all planted with hybrid citrus. The ones already ripe and hanging all over the branches are "Chunjian"; the ones that have set fruit but need several more months to ripen are "Qingjian"; besides these there are also "Buzhihuo," "Aiyuan No. 38," "Muket," and others... On trees with fruit, to prevent the fruit from being damaged by frost, everything is covered with plastic film. When the wind blows, following the rises and falls of the hilly terrain, it looks like rolling sea waves.
Fan Jingchao appears and disappears in those waves, making final preparations for the fruit-picking festival two days later. "Let's take another look at the picking route." He pushed up his glasses, wiped the slight sweat on his forehead, and there was excitement in his voice that was hard to conceal: "After working at this for 8 years, it can finally be shown to people." Around him, there are now 10,100 mu of orchards, covering 19 administrative villages in 4 townships including Jiyi and Yanjing.
"It wasn't like this before. Back then it was all barren hills." Fan Jingchao's thoughts returned to 8 years earlier.
In 2007, he was still director of the Disaster Relief Office of the Sichuan Provincial Government. Because he was about to turn 60, the organization planned to arrange for him to serve as the top leader of another department-level unit to continue contributing. "But I wanted to come back and be a farmer." Fan Jingchao approached the leader in charge at the time twice, and finally gained understanding and support.
In 2008, Fan Jingchao came back alone to Fanrong Village, Jiyi Township, Jingyan County, his hometown after many years away. On January 28, 1948, he was born in this small mountain village and lived there until graduating from high school in 1969. Later, he became a privately run teacher, then was transferred to a public teacher position, then worked at a broadcasting station, and after that embarked on an official career, moving from section level to division level and all the way to department level. After that, he would also come back during festivals and holidays, but would leave again before long.
But this time, Fan Jingchao was in no hurry to leave. A few days later, the villagers became curious: what was "Department Head Fan" up to?
Entrepreneurship · Turmoil
Selling houses to grow citrus
Wife so angry she wanted a divorce
"I want to grow citrus!" Fan Jingchao's response stunned the villagers.
In fact, as early as the beginning of 2007, he had already made up his mind to return to his hometown to start a business after retirement, in the direction of modern agriculture, combining crop farming and livestock farming. He had his older sister first carry out further experiments, raising ducks, rabbits, and fish in their hometown, but the results were not ideal.
The idea of growing citrus came to him on April 23, 2007, and Fan Jingchao still remembers it vividly. That day, Fan Jingchao went to Xindian Township, Renshou County, for research. Seeing citrus all over the mountains and fields, a variety called "Qingjian," large in size, good in taste, and with obvious economic benefits. "At that time I felt my eyes light up!" Fan Jingchao immediately thought that Renshou and Jingyan are adjacent, with similar natural environment and climatic conditions, and his hometown's topography and landforms were even better than here, so why not try growing citrus?
After the research ended, he found the owner of the citrus orchard, Xu Wenke. Xu Wenke was a well-known local leader in becoming wealthy, and he led fruit growers in creating the "Hometown of Chinese Qingjian." Faced with Fan Jingchao's request, Xu Wenke enthusiastically made a promise. Not long after, he transported 505 "Qingjian" seedlings, and later 500 survived, and now they have had high yields for years running. These 500 saplings formally opened Fan Jingchao's dream of a citrus industry, so he named his orchard "Citrus Dream Garden."
The beginning of the dream was not smooth. "First of all, my family did not support it." Fan Jingchao's decision met with unanimous opposition from his family. His wife accused him of not staying by her side and even once threatened divorce. His daughter, son-in-law, younger brother, and others were both afraid he would wear himself out and afraid he would lose money and fall into debt. Later, Fan Jingchao said he would start on a small scale and develop prudently according to circumstances, and only then did his family reluctantly accept his choice. But the only one who returned home to start a business was still him alone.
Because his family did not support him, Fan Jingchao was stretched thin financially. He took out all his savings as startup capital, only more than 100,000 yuan. When the orchard had grown to more than 100 mu, he earnestly did persuasion work and mobilized relatives and friends to raise several hundred thousand yuan. Later, when the orchard had grown to 600 mu, he sold his house in Chengdu and sold his father's house in Leshan. "This made family relations even more tense." What comforted Fan Jingchao was that his wife did not actually divorce him.
Entrepreneurship · Achievements
Orchard expands to ten thousand mu, driving villagers to wealth
His family did not understand, and the villagers did not understand either. Even though 505 "Qingjian" seedlings had already been planted, doubts about Fan Jingchao never stopped. When expanding the scale required transferring land, the villagers would always have all kinds of worries: "An official who ran back to be a farmer, he's just doing it for fun, right?" "He's already over 60, how long can he keep it up?"