Old Ding's Pomelo Harvest in Yuechi County, Guang'an, Sichuan

In the photo, Ding Shiyun (left) introduces his Anfo honey pomelo to customers

When people talk about Old Ding, most cadres and residents of Yuechi give a thumbs-up and praise him endlessly: "Even though he is a disabled man, he grows pomelos really well - big and sweet!"

Old Ding's real name is Ding Shiyun. He is 51 years old this year. In 2005, he moved from Anyue County to Dafo Township in Yuechi County and began growing pomelos. It has been ten years now. At present, the pomelo business has grown from the initial 150 mu to 7000 mu, involving 4 townships and 16 villages.

"The pomelo harvest is good this year. It is estimated that 1 million jin can be produced, and the output value can reach 2.5 million yuan." On November 14, Old Ding said happily while busy picking pomelos, and his words revealed the joy of a bumper harvest.

But behind this joy of harvest is a record of his persistent pursuit and dream of being obsessed with developing the fruit tree business.

When Old Ding was in junior high school, an accident happened. His right wrist was blown to pieces by gunpowder and had to be amputated, leaving him disabled. Facing the sudden change and unfortunate circumstances in life, he did not give up his dream and pursuit. With only his left hand, he mastered life skills such as washing clothes, cooking, cutting vegetables, and farming, and he was determined to make a career in fruit trees. To this end, he long subscribed to professional books such as Fruit Industry Information and China Southern Fruit Trees to study and improve himself, and mastered techniques such as fruit tree seedling raising and grafting cultivation management. In 1989, he became a village fruit tree technician. He successively won the opportunity to study at the China Citrus Research Institute, which enabled him to make considerable progress in fruit tree cultivation techniques and new variety breeding. He also obtained the opportunity to be sent to the China Citrus Research Institute for further study, and from then on embarked on the entrepreneurial path of grafting fruit trees and developing pomelos. In 1991, he became a fruit tree technician. In 1992, he was recruited as a technician by Tongzi Pomelo Development Service Company and served as head of the production and supply section. After being dismissed according to policy in 1999, he sought his own employment, returned to his hometown, contracted land, and started a new variety breeding experiment for "honey pomelo." Using high-quality virus-free honey pomelo introduced from the China Citrus Research Institute as the female parent, through four years of effort, he bred a new honey pomelo variety with large fruit, thin peel, moderate sweetness and sourness, crisp and tender texture that melts in the mouth, and high and stable yield.

In order to promote the planting of his new honey pomelo variety, in 2005, he favored the favorable policies for developing agricultural industries in Dafo Township, Yuechi County, and transplanted more than 5000 new honey pomelo variety plants that he had introduced and cultivated from the China Citrus Research Institute 3 years earlier to Sanguandian Village, Dafo Township, covering an area of 150 mu. At the beginning, because he was unfamiliar with the place, disabled, and worn out from long-term toil, he once became ill and bedridden, and his life fell into a low point. Fortunately, the cadres and residents of Dafo Township did not treat him as an outsider. The township Party committee and government took the initiative to help coordinate and solve difficulties and problems, and local people also visited him and asked about his needs, which made this disabled outsider feel the warmth of family. In 2006, disregarding his family's strong opposition, he moved his household registration from Anyue to Dafo Township, Yuechi County, determined to make the pomelo industry bigger and stronger and lead villagers to become better off and increase their incomes. In 2008, he put forward the development concept for honey pomelo - "I give you a tree, you give me back one fruit" - that is, pomelo seedlings were given to people free of charge to plant, and when the pomelos bore fruit, each plant would give back one fruit every year. A good concept brought rapid development. That year, Sanguandian Village planted more than 1500 mu of honey pomelo. At that time, local people also joined the cooperative one after another with land as shares. Now, 20% of his "Anfo honey pomelo" has begun to bear fruit, and the honey pomelo has good appearance and authentic taste, and is favored by bosses of large supermarkets and farmers' markets in Chongqing, Chengdu and other places, who have signed sales orders with him one after another.

Last year, Dafo Township vigorously implemented industrial poverty alleviation, developing the Anfo honey pomelo industrial poverty alleviation project in contiguous areas including Fenghuang, Xiangshan, Zhaojiagou, Sanguandian, and Yanjiawan, and handed the important task of contiguous development of the honey pomelo industry to Ding Shiyun. In May this year, in the name of the cooperative, he jointly developed with villagers. The villagers provided land, and the cooperative was responsible for all management and sales. In the future, the villagers would take 80% of the income, and the cooperative only 20%. In 5 villages, 50000 pomelo seedlings were planned for planting, covering more than 2000 mu. It is estimated that the output value at the peak production period can reach ten million yuan.

Now, as a representative of the municipal people's congress, he has invited his older brother, older sister, and nephew from Anyue to Yuechi, and the whole family is developing the pomelo industry in Yuechi, bringing villagers along to develop and become better off.