College graduate returns home to grow pears, boosting villagers' incomes and prosperity

Yang Dake (first from left) busy in the orchard.

More than ten years ago, Wuliang Village in Shuangtu Town was the poorest mountain village in Yunyang County. Today, on Wuliang Mountain at an altitude of more than 1,000 m, pear trees cover the hillsides, and villagers have tasted the "sweet rewards" of growing pears one after another, with per capita annual income increasing by more than 5,000 yuan, and every household has built a small Western-style house. All of this is because of Yang Dake. After graduating from Sichuan University, he gave up his job in the city and returned to the village to lead the villagers in becoming prosperous and starting businesses. In 2006, this top student of years past was named one of the "Top Ten People Who Moved Chongqing."

Yang Dake was not the first college student in the village, but he was the first young person to give up a city job and return to the village to start a business.

In 1999, Yang Dake had just graduated from the Department of Applied Electronics at Sichuan University when he was hired by a communications company in Chengdu. Leaving the mountains and escaping the "farm gate" was the dream of many children from the mountains. Just when his family was happy that he could put down roots in the city, Yang Dake decided to resign and return to his hometown to start a business.

Yang Dake said he had visited Longquanyi in Chengdu many times, and the distinctive sightseeing agriculture there opened his eyes. He thought of what his grandfather had once said: the poorer and more backward a place is, the more it needs technology and talent. His grandfather, who graduated from the Department of Agriculture at Wuhan University before liberation, had returned home to grow pear trees, and the family still had dozens of mu of pear orchard. "Now that national policies are so good, why not go back to my hometown and build something?" Yang Dake thought.

In 2000, Yang Dake resolutely resigned from his job and returned to his hometown to become a farmer. During the day, he and his parents went up the mountain to clear wasteland, pull weeds and dig planting holes; at night, he held books and taught himself pear-growing techniques. A month later, the barren slope behind the mountain had been reclaimed. Yang Dake borrowed more than 50,000 yuan from relatives and friends, traveled to more than ten provinces and cities including Hunan, Beijing and Jilin, introduced more than 300 pear varieties, and encouraged villagers to plant them together.

In 2003, pear cultivation in Wuliang Village began to take shape, reaching an area of 2,000 mu, and fruit wholesalers lined up to buy at the village. In 2005, Yang Dake registered Wuliang Mountain's first brand, "Dake Brand" crystal pears.

In 2006, Yang Dake began teaching pear-growing techniques to villagers free of charge. That year, he was named one of the "Top Ten People Who Moved Chongqing" and also became a Communist Party member.

"Most villagers had lived off the mountains for years. How could they have money to contract land to grow pears? They worried they lacked technique and were afraid they would see no returns and their money would be thrown away." Yang Dake mobilized his fellow villagers to grow pears and took the initiative to sign contracts with them: he would provide the seedlings and guarantee survival, technique and buyback, with a survival rate of no less than 95%, and the villagers would pay for the seedlings after the trees bore fruit.

With strong support from the local government, Yang Dake initiated the creation of the Yunyang County Large-Fruit Crystal Pear Professional Cooperative and signed contracts with villagers. By 2007, the town's crystal pear planting area had reached 4,500 mu.

To help his fellow villagers buy cheap fertilizer, Yang Dake advanced more than 30,000 yuan and bought 32 tons of special fruit-tree fertilizer from the new county seat. Two full truckloads of fertilizer were transported from the county seat to Wuliang Village. After that, he went to Wanzhou many times to buy agricultural materials and pesticides. These two items alone saved his fellow villagers more than 3,000 yuan.

Today, 41-year-old Yang Dake is already the president of the Yunyang County Federation of Rural Cooperative Economic Organizations. "The village has developed quite well in recent years," Yang Dake said. The Yunyang County Large-Fruit Crystal Pear Professional Cooperative has already driven 476 households to develop pear cultivation, and the total annual sales revenue of the pear orchards on Wuliang Mountain has reached 12 million yuan.