Luzhou couple finds sweet success in fruit growing, leads fellow villagers to wealth together

"Recently, Xu Xuecheng, a fruit farmer in Group 3 of Lishi Village, Quba Town, Luzhou, had a bumper harvest of mandarins and navel oranges, and the couple seized the fine weather to pick navel oranges for sale. According to Xu Xuecheng, he has contracted the village collective economic forest orchard for fruit cultivation since 1999, and this year, there is no problem with the 40-mu orchard earning 100,000 yuan. Xu Xuecheng told Chuannan Agricultural Economics Network, 'This year the mandarins and navel oranges had a bumper harvest, and the prices were good too. The first batch of mandarins alone sold for more than 40,000 yuan...'"

Returning home after military service, he learned fruit-growing techniques and made a living from his "technical skills" far and wide

Xu Xuecheng is 62 years old this year. In 1980, Xu Xuecheng returned from military service to his hometown, Lishi Village, Quba Town. At that time, Xu Xuecheng did not choose to go out to work, but instead thought about learning a skill, because he had heard from his elders since childhood: a craft in hand benefits you for life.

At that time, our district was vigorously developing economic forests, and the agricultural department was promoting fruits such as pomelos, loquats, sweet oranges and mandarin oranges in various towns. The more than 100 mu of former village collective barren hills near Xu Xuecheng's home was also reclaimed into an orchard.

"Xiao Xu, do you want to learn fruit tree cultivation techniques?" At that time, Li Yunxi, a fruit technology expert from the district agricultural bureau, was stationed in the village to guide the development of the orchard. Seeing that Xu Xuecheng was smart and diligent, Li Yunxi took him as an apprentice and taught him fruit tree cultivation and management techniques. Over two years, Li Yunxi took Xu Xuecheng to orchards large and small across all the townships in our district, promoting fruit technology while teaching Xu Xuecheng fruit cultivation and management techniques. Because Xu Xuecheng was diligent and eager to learn, he quickly mastered the cultivation and management techniques for more than 10 kinds of fruit and became somewhat well-known locally. From then on, with his superb skills, Xu Xuecheng not only helped planting owners with technical guidance in our district and around the city, but also traveled as far as Yunnan, Guizhou and Chongqing to manage orchards, making a living from his technical skills. "At that time, the wage for odd jobs locally was only two yuan a day, while grafting fruit for others could earn five or six yuan a day, and it was very much in demand..." Xu Xuecheng said that although managing orchards for others could earn money, after all it was not his own business. At that time, he often thought about building his own orchard, but the opportunity was not yet ripe.

Contracting an orchard, the hardworking couple strikes gold on barren hills

"Secretary Liu, I heard the village orchard is going to be contracted out. Can it be contracted to me?" In the spring of 1999, Xu Xuecheng was in Chongqing managing an orchard for someone else. When he learned that the village collective orchard was to be contracted out for operation due to poor management, he immediately quit his job and went home to find village Party branch secretary Liu Mouhua. "Sure, you understand the techniques. If the orchard is handed over to you to manage, the masses will be reassured..."

Action followed words. After discussing with several villagers, Xu Xuecheng jointly contracted the more than 100 mu orchard in the village. Among it, Xu Xuecheng contracted the 40 mu mixed citrus orchard in front of his home for an annual contract fee of 3,200 yuan, with a contract period of 20 years.

"At that time, the orchard was all planted with blood oranges and mixed citrus. Because the fruit was small and the price was not high, and market demand for blood oranges was weak, in the first year, no money was made." Xu Xuecheng said that seeing a year of hard work bring no profit, his wife Tang Daiyun urged him to give up. In the second year, Xu Xuecheng carefully observed and thought it over and found that the orchard's low yield was caused by too extensive collective management in the past, the steep slope of the orchard, insufficient fertility, and inadequate pruning and fruit thinning. He decided to immediately begin improving the orchard's fertility. With his strong management skills, Xu Xuecheng strictly managed fertilization, pruning and fruit thinning, and other links, and the orchard took on a completely new look. In the second year, Xu Xuecheng's fruit output increased by 30 percent, and that year he earned more than 20,000 yuan. The income was quite considerable, much better than working for others.

In the following years, although the output of Xu Xuecheng's orchard rose steadily, the growth in economic benefits was not obvious, and sometimes sales were difficult. In response to this situation, Xu Xuecheng carefully investigated the surrounding fruit wholesale markets and inquired about market conditions from the district fruit technology station and wholesalers. He found that the market had strong demand for high-quality fruit varieties such as navel oranges, mandarins and Dekopon, and their prices were also relatively high, while the blood oranges and mixed citrus from his own orchard were in a sluggish market, so the prices could not rise. Xu Xuecheng then began improving the varieties of his fruit trees, introducing navel oranges and mandarins with large fruit and pure taste.

In just two years, Xu Xuecheng replanted more than 500 navel orange trees and more than 200 mandarin trees, and the new varieties also brought him good benefits. "This patch of navel orange grove is my 'precious treasure.' One tree produces about 50 jin of navel oranges, and this grove's total output can reach more than 20,000 jin, with a net income of 30,000 to 40,000 yuan." Xu Xuecheng said, "Navel orange is the 'king of oranges,' seedless, with moderate sweetness and acidity, excellent quality, very popular with the public, and sales are booming. Even at 6 yuan per kg, it is in high demand."

Thanks to proper management, the orchard improved by Xu Xuecheng and his wife saw economic returns grow multiple times over. In the following years, it created a considerable income of 60,000 to 80,000 yuan for them every year. "Manage the orchard in the slack farming season and farm the land in the busy season, without neglecting either, with no risk, and more worthwhile than working for others." His wife Tang Daiyun introduced cheerfully.

Teaching techniques and establishing a specialized cooperative to strengthen the fruit industry

When villagers saw that the former barren hill had become a lush orchard and could earn tens of thousands of yuan a year, many could not help but be moved and also began reclaiming their own barren hills to develop specialty fruits.

Being rich oneself does not count as being rich; only when fellow villagers become rich is it truly rich. For this reason, Xu Xuecheng became the village's technical consultant, unreservedly teaching planting households, hand by hand, the scientific planting techniques he had accumulated over many years, such as tree pruning and pest and disease control. When grafting had a high survival rate and when pest control was most effective, Xu Xuecheng not only held lectures in his own orchard, but also often went to nearby planting households' homes to provide free technical guidance.

In 2013, under the leadership of the local government, Xu Xuecheng and more than 100 planting households jointly established the Fengdongshi Fruit Professional Cooperative and registered a trademark. At present, Lishi Village has nearly 1,000 mu of fruit planting area, and each planting household has increased income by more than 30,000 yuan on average. At present, after the trees bear fruit each year, some villagers hand their fruit to the professional cooperative to sell on their behalf. Today, in Lishi Village, Quba Town, Xu Xuecheng is the "wealth-building old brother" in everyone's eyes, and villagers compete to ask him for advice. Xu Xuecheng also unreservedly passes on experience to everyone.

"Although the contract period has only 4 years left, I still need to continue managing my orchard well, leading cooperative members to introduce new technologies and new varieties and expand sales channels..." Xu Xuecheng is already over 60 years old. He hopes that younger, more knowledgeable planting households will take over, actively cooperate with e-commerce to broaden sales channels, carry out agricultural product processing, transportation, storage and packaging services, attract more farmers to join the cooperative, and drive more people to prosperity. When talking about future development prospects, Xu Xuecheng said that as long as he can still walk, he is willing to serve as a technical consultant for planting households.