Wealth-Building Star Yuan Shuliang: A Local Expert Becomes a Leader in Getting Rich

    Yuan Shuliang, director of Litang Village in Fengxi Street, Lusong District, and the village's distance-learning instructor, led the village's Party members and residents in creating a small "miracle" on barren hills. Already fifty years old, Yuan Shuliang had run a clothing business and a fruit wholesale business in his early years, earned his first pot of gold, and become a wealth-building star in the village.   
           
    In 2002, when the village was holding its term elections, he was unanimously elected by all the villagers as director of the village committee. At that time, he did not forget that he was a mud-legged farmer at heart, nor did he forget the burning expectations of more than 2,000 Litang villagers. He resolutely gave up the business world he knew well and devoted himself wholeheartedly to the somewhat unexpectedly obtained role of "village official." He knew his goal was to lead the villagers to prosperity together, and that achieving this goal depended on unique technology and the right products. A blind project would not only fail to bring benefits but would also cause greater losses. He bought a second-hand computer and every night asked his daughter to be his teacher, searching online for all kinds of planting and breeding information, often thinking about it until early morning. In the end, he discovered that several products such as southern early-maturing pears and western pear melons were not only very well suited to Litang Village's climate conditions but could also fully develop and utilize the village's hundreds upon hundreds of mu of barren hills. Cautious as he was, he invested more than 30,000 yuan to begin experiments in his own backyard. Two years later, market response helped confirm this approach: Litang Village could achieve prosperity by relying on economic fruit trees.   
           
    In the winter of 2004, Yuan Shuliang and the village Party branch and village committee worked as one to promote "specialty planting" on a large scale. They successively introduced nearly 10,000 fruit seedlings of six kinds from Yuanjiang, including southern early-maturing pears, Guangxi persimmons, citrus, and Shatian pomelos, and distributed them to villagers free of charge. By this time, he knew that enthusiasm alone was not enough; what large-scale planting needed most was technology. After tasting the benefits of the computer and the internet, he did not dare slacken in the slightest. He actively contacted the district Party committee organization department and secured a set of distance-learning equipment, which he installed in the largest and best meeting room in the village office. Under the careful arrangements of instructor Yuan Shuliang, the distance-learning site became a gathering place for fruit tree growers. First, regular lectures. Yuan Shuliang always downloaded materials regularly, first studied suitable courseware himself until he had mastered it, and then regularly lectured to growers, passing on the problems encountered and the solutions to every villager. Second, discussion-based mutual learning. Only through exchange can there be improvement. Yuan Shuliang regularly gathered growers at the group leader's home, drawing out the villagers' insights and ideas through discussion so that farming households gained the greatest benefit. Third, door-to-door teaching. He often went to farmers' homes and unreservedly passed on his own pest and disease prevention and control techniques, becoming the village's "local expert" and the villagers' "good teacher and helpful friend."   
           
    Through several years of effort, Yuan Shuliang cultivated the right planting techniques into the villagers' interest in getting rich, and relying on the distance-learning platform, developed 11 fruit tree planting projects in the village covering more than 800 mu, benefiting nearly 100 farming households, increasing per capita income by 800 yuan, and transforming and utilizing more than 300 mu of barren hills. These numbers will continue to be renewed as time goes on, because more and more farmers are joining this undertaking that benefits the people. Through these efforts, agricultural products such as western pear melons, southern early-maturing pears, and Guangxi persimmons also received featured publicity in the Famous and Excellent Townships column of Red Star Network. Today, Litang Village has become Lusong's veritable "No. 1 Fruit Village."   
     
    In midsummer and during the autumn harvest season, on the Litang section of Route s211 one will surely see a bustling scene of many people driving cars and lining up to buy fruit. Daily transaction volume here reaches more than 5,000 kilograms, making it a unique sight in the building of a new countryside. This is the result brought by Yuan Shuliang, a leader in becoming rich through science and technology, and even more so the result of distance education benefiting farmers seeking prosperity in rural areas.