How does Zhang Guangke, a skilled fruit grower in Pingguo, grow fruit?

    When the geese fly high, the credit goes to the lead goose. For more than ten years, Zhang Guangke, a skilled fruit grower in Pingguo County, has relied on science and technology to grow fruit, not only enriching himself but also driving and spreading fruit-growing prosperity among a broad range of farmers, becoming the lead goose on the road to prosperity. 
　　 
Zhang Guangke, now 42 years old, is a villager of Shanglan Village, Longpan Village, Sitang Town, Pingguo County. In 1994, Zhang Guangke and several young people in the village succeeded in trial-planting Hongjiang oranges. In 1998, the grapes he trial-planted also succeeded, with net income per mu from grapes reaching more than 8,000 yuan. In 2004, some Hongjiang orange trees in Shanglan Village were aging and their market advantage gradually declined. In order to introduce new varieties suitable for development, Zhang Guangke and village cadres visited Zhejiang, Sihui in Guangdong and other places to study, and learned that sugar oranges had large market sales and high prices, so they came back and mobilized the villagers to renovate the aging Hongjiang oranges and plant sugar oranges. At the same time, they won the support of the county and township governments and developed a 200-mu sugar orange planting demonstration base. Zhang Guangke contracted 15 mu and was responsible for providing technical guidance to the growers. "Although my life is prosperous now, one person being rich does not count as being rich; only when all our fellow villagers are rich does it count as being rich." Zhang Guangke's sincere and simple words deeply moved everyone present. 

Since 2000, Zhang Guangke has successively contacted  12 poor households in the village as his poverty alleviation targets, helped them find suitable projects for development, and taught them new fruit tree planting techniques free of charge. Today, under Zhang Guangke's influence and leadership, all 87 households in Shanglan Village grow fruit, and the village's total annual fruit output reaches more than 2,600 tons, with an output value of 3.1 million yuan. From fruit alone, the annual per capita income of the people of Shanglan Village reaches more than 4,000 yuan. For this reason, Shanglan Village has also been hailed as a banner of Pingguo County in adjusting the industrial structure and has become a well-known fruit village far and near.

Zhang Guangke (first from right) teaching sugar orange planting techniques. Photo by Huang Jia