Hebei Fruit Tree experts'"Road to Poverty Alleviation"

Qu Xianzhong is checking the growth of fruit trees.

Although it was raining heavily, qu Xianzhong came to Weixian County, Hebei Province by car as usual. This time, he plans to stay here for more than ten days.

Qu Xianzhong, 71, is a famous fruit tree expert in Hebei Province. before retiring, he served as Deputy Director and Inspector of Hebei Forestry Department. In 2013, qu Xianzhong, who wanted to spend his twilight years at home, came to Weixian County, Hebei Province. He did not expect it to become a difficult place for him to give up. He devoted his lifelong experience and painstaking efforts to growing fruit trees, leading local farmers to build pear orchards and plant pear trees. In three years, tens of thousands of mu of barren land have been turned into 68000 mu of modern high-standard orchards.

A village rich from pears

Weixian, which belongs to Xingtai City, Hebei Province, is a key county in the national poverty alleviation and development work. Located in the south of the North China Plain, it belongs to the alluvial plain area formed by the long-term flooding and siltation of the ancient Yellow River and Guzhang River. it is a typical agricultural county. The county has a large area of river wasteland and barren land.

Yuanzhuang Village, Heying Town, located on the bank of Xisha River in Weixian County, is a well-known poor village.

Zheng Jikui, a village branch secretary, said that most of the land in the village belongs to river beaches, with serious desertification, leakage of water and fertilizer, and is not suitable for growing crops. Villagers used to make a living by growing cotton, with an income of less than 1000 yuan per mu of land. If the cost and labor costs are taken into account, they will lose money.

According to Zheng Jikui, in the past, young people in the village could not stand the life of poverty, so they fled here and went to work in the city. The arable land in the village is only cultivated by the elderly, and some arable land is really uncultivated and can only be left to be desolate.

There is a local limerick describing Yuanzhuang Village like this: "the Red Dragon sets Yuanzhuang Dipiwa, and the bachelor man is 280." Girls from other places turn into mud and do not marry the Red Dragon Collection of Yuanzhuang. "

Today, a beautiful scenic road connects a number of large modern high-standard pear orchards to Yuanzhuang Village. Driving on the road, vehicles are like entering the sea of pear trees, which are covered with pears wrapped in paper bags, heralding a bumper harvest this autumn. Entering Yuanzhuang Village, the road is wide and shady by the side of the road. Guanghe Li, Fulai Lane. The names of these streets reflect the villagers' expectations for a better life.

All this comes from the pear industry in the village. By means of land transfer, equity dividends and pear orchard work, the villagers of Yuanzhuang Village have gradually become rich. at present, more than 20 villagers have bought buildings in the county seat, and more than 100 private cars have been added to the village. Yuanzhuang Village was also successfully selected as the "Beautiful Village" in Hebei Province.

Speaking of pears, Zheng Jikui immediately cheered up. "the pears produced in our village are 'parade pears'!"

Zheng Jikui said: on August 29, 2015, Weixian, as an old revolutionary base, went to the military parade village in Beijing to pay tribute to the soldiers and soldiers on the 70th anniversary of the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, and sent new varieties such as Xueqing pears and Qiuyue pears, all of which were tested by the Food Inspection Room of the Chinese Armed Police Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Life is getting better day by day, but in the hearts of Zheng Jikui and other villagers, what is unforgettable is qu Xianzhong, who led the villagers to plant pear trees, and his scientific research team.

The ancient old man in the pear orchard

Qu Xianzhong, who has passed the age of antiquity, is full of spirit, tall and burly, and although he has silver hair, he walks in the pear orchard, walking vigorously and like the wind.

In September 2012, qu Xianzhong came to Weixian County to attend the live exchange of pear fruit in Hebei Province as a special guest. In the course of his visit, he found that the soil, water quality and climate of Weixian County are suitable for planting fruit trees. however, a large area of land in the county is barren, and farmers only grow cotton with very low income and live in poverty.

Qu Xianzhong, who wants to give full play to his "residual heat", came to Weixian County to become a senior adviser to the local economic forest. However, he, who had planned to stay here for a year, worked for three years.

On January 4, 2013, qu Xianzhong came to Weixian County with simple luggage. On the day of his arrival, qu Xianzhong did not go to his residence to have a rest, but went directly to the bank of Xisha River in the west of the city to make an on-the-spot investigation to test the soil, water quality and climate.

In a large number of investigations, he found that there is a tradition of pear industry planting in Weixian County in history, and the soil, water quality and light are very suitable for growing pears, and after investigation, the market prospect of pears is getting broader and wider, especially in the high-end market. the economic benefit is more and more considerable.

In order to demonstrate the feasibility of growing pears, qu Xianzhong visited several pear producing areas in Hebei Province. Gao Yang, Shunping, Wei County, Xinji, Zhao County. Subsequently, he invited a number of domestic experts to demonstrate. Finally, it is decided to build a 100000 mu pear industrial belt in Weixian County, combining afforestation with industrial development, so as to realize the "win-win" of ecological and economic benefits.

After research, qu Xianzhong and many well-known fruit tree experts comprehensively considered the soil quality and international market factors of Weixian County, and established four main varieties: Xueqing pear, Qiuyue pear, Xinli pear No. 7 and Hongxiangshui pear.

From then on, the ancient old man plunged into the pear orchard and poured years of painstaking efforts into this barren land.

A different "consultant"

Since 2013, qu Xianzhong, who lives in Shijiazhuang, has spent more than 300 days a year in Weixian County. In Weixian County, qu Xianzhong's most frequent place is the pear orchard.

Walking in the orchard, qu Xianzhong often leaves the staff and his students far behind. Whenever he saw the fruit grower building and fertilizing in the wrong way, he would stop and teach the fruit farmer the right way. In order to allow the pear orchard to be completed as soon as possible, he even went to check the construction of the pear orchard at 4: 00 in the morning. Stories like this happen every day, and pear farmers are familiar with his figure.

Sun Shenghao, a student of qu Xianzhong, said that in order to build a high-standard orchard one day earlier, qu Xianzhong is racing against the clock every day.

In Weixian County, qu Xianzhong selected 10 mu of wasteland in a village as an experimental field. A villager joked to qu Xianzhong: "qu Lao, when can we eat pears?" Qu Xianzhong was anxious when he heard this. "I'll let you eat pears this year!"

In order to save planting time, qu Xianzhong broke the conventional planting mode and adopted Hebei du pear garden, which was planted in winter and grafted in March the following year, which completely broke the previous production mode of planting in spring. Planting according to this method, not only the survival rate of pear seedlings is high, but also the time result is one quarter ahead of schedule. In the autumn of that year, qu Xianzhong's 10 mu experimental field bore fruit.

"at that time, there were 3600 jin of pears per mu. When I called on the villagers to eat pears, they couldn't believe it." Qu Xianzhong said.

In order to build a high-standard pear orchard, Weixian County introduced a listed company to build a high-standard modern pear orchard by attracting investment. The company is not only a key agricultural leading enterprise in China, but also an authority in the industry, and the design drawings of this enterprise's pear orchard construction and pear tree planting were completely denied by qu Xianzhong at the very beginning.

"No matter how big the enterprise is, the construction of pear orchards should be in line with the laws of nature and adjust measures to local conditions." Qu Xianzhong said. After many meetings and discussions, qu Xianzhong always adhered to his own point of view and the construction plan of the pear orchard. After several days and nights of discussion, qu Xianzhong did not give in an inch.

"in their plan, the tree hole is very narrow and the trunk of the fruit tree is set at more than 80 centimeters. How can the saplings survive?. The pear orchard is the hope of getting rich locally, and there is no room for carelessness. " Qu Xianzhong said.

In the end, qu Xianzhong and the company reached an agreement that 2/3 of the pear orchards were built in qu Xianzhong's way, and 1/3 of the pear orchards were built in the original way of the company.

The company hired Japanese experts to build a pear orchard, and after the pear orchard was completed, the survival rate of the pear orchard built according to qu Xianzhong's method was far higher than that of the original pear orchard built by the company.

According to Liu Liang, a researcher of agricultural technology promotion in Weixian County, the Japanese experts of the company were amazed at qu Xianzhong's pear tree cultivation and were willing to be at a disadvantage.

The students who have been following him often advise him that a 70-year-old man is not short of food and clothing, and that the job as a consultant could have been easy and desperate.

Qu Xianzhong never regards himself as a consultant, nor does he regard pear tree cultivation as a job. The pear trees planted here are the result of a lifetime of experience and painstaking efforts, and the farmers here are all his friends, and it is his heartfelt expectation to help them get rid of poverty and become rich.

Has made the pear orchard his hometown.

Qu Xianzhong's family is in Shijiazhuang, his wife is in poor health, and his 95-year-old mother is in Dingzhou's hometown. The little granddaughter in primary school often talked to him on the phone because she missed her grandfather. He always said that he would go back when his work was over, but there was no time.

Qu Xianzhong was busy doing experiments and training fruit growers in the orchard during the day. In the evening, he began to sort out the data and was busy late into the night. "getting up at 04:00, not going home at noon, and turning round in the evening" is a true portrayal of his work.

The fruit growers in Weixian County all know qu Xianzhong's phone number and often call him for advice, but he answers patiently one by one. On one occasion, he received a call from an orchard farmer and immediately drove to the scene. Unexpectedly, the bus broke down on the way, so he walked more than ten miles to the orchard to help the orchard solve the problem.

The old man has two kinds of "treasures", one is a camera, the other is a notebook. Wherever he goes, he will take pictures of what he has seen and learn from, carve them into CD-ROMs and save them for future research. When you encounter a problem that can't be solved, write it down in a book and go back and think about it carefully.

There is a cabinet in qu Xianzhong's residence, which is full of CDs he has carved over the past few years. These CDs are also the tools he uses for teaching. In Weixian County, every lecture given by qu Xianzhong is attended by hundreds of people, including farmers, technicians, and township cadres.

At the 18th China Agricultural products Fair, the Xueqing pear planted under the guidance of qu Xianzhong won the title of "King of Pear", and other pears also won a number of awards.

During the Spring Festival in 2014, qu Xianzhong was hospitalized because of a stroke. After staying for five days, his condition improved, and he secretly ran out of the hospital and went straight to the orchard. When people asked him when he would go home for his old age, he always said to wait until the pear orchard was completed. In fact, in his mind, he already regarded the pear orchard as his hometown.

In more than three years, Weixian County has built 68000 mu of high-standard pear orchards, involving 104 administrative villages in 7 townships, and introduced 35 leading enterprises, such as Shaanxi Haisheng, Lipper Science and Technology, Hebei Qiuyue, Hebei Longji, Hebei Guoli, and so on. 63 farmers' cooperatives have been established, 13 large growers have been developed, and 136 standardized pear orchards have been built. According to the plan, by 2020, the planting scale of pear trees will reach 100000 mu, the output of pears will reach 264 million kilograms, the output value of pears will reach 1.8 billion yuan, the export earnings will reach 48 million US dollars, and the net income of farmers in the planning area will reach more than 10,000 yuan.