Not an official returning to the village to grow oranges the entrepreneurial classics of a retired office official in Sichuan

With tanned skin and thick myopic glasses on the bridge of his nose, these two incongruous features appear on Fan Jingchao at the same time. The villagers of Fanrong Village, Jiyi Township, Jingyan County, Sichuan Province all called this strange farmer, "Director Fan."

Before returning to his hometown as a farmer, Fan Jingchao had many titles before his name.

When he left the countryside at the age of 21 and had been in politics for nearly 40 years, he made a decision that everyone was puzzled or even opposed: he gave up his post as director of the counsellor's office of the provincial government and returned to his hometown Fangrong Village alone. The 60-year-old veteran cadre wanted to "do a big thing"-growing oranges.

In the past eight years, under the leadership of Fan Jingchao, the planting area of the local citrus orchard has covered 19 administrative villages in 4 townships, including Jiyi and Jingjing, covering an area of 10100 mu, with an average income of about 10, 000 yuan per mu. But what made him most proud was that "the villagers finally believed me!"

Go back to your hometown to be a farmer

Fan Jingchao's idea of not being an official and going back to the village as a farmer has been brewing for more than three or two days.

Fan Jingchao, who once worked in the Sichuan Provincial Department of Agriculture, the Provincial Water Resources Department, and the disaster Relief Office of the provincial government, has almost always been dealing with "agriculture, rural areas and farmers." He has visited more than 210 grass-roots counties and cities, visited the development of modern agriculture in Japan, Israel, the United States, and other countries, and wrote many research papers on how to develop agriculture.

Compared with what he saw in overseas research, Fan Jingchao felt sad when he went back to his hometown every year. "at that time, the roads in the village were not repaired, the rain was muddy over the ankles, the labor force went out to work, the fields were abandoned, and there were empty houses and barren mountains everywhere. I feel that the gap between my hometown and the outside world is getting wider and wider."

As early as in early 2007, Fan Jingchao was ready to retire to his hometown to engage in modern agriculture, and asked his sister in his hometown to try to raise ducks, rabbits and fish, but the results were not very satisfactory.

In the same year, a survey in Renshou County, Sichuan Province brightened Fan Jingchao's eyes. He found a local "entrepreneurial expert" named Xu Wenke. Under the leadership of this talented person, the planting area of a local hybrid citrus called "Qingjian" has expanded to nearly 10,000 mu, with an output value of more than 10,000 yuan per mu. Even exported to Vietnam, Singapore and other countries.

"the fact that Xu Wenke led the villagers to develop the modern fruit industry has provided me with a realistic version of a successful case." The exchange with Xu Wenke made Fan Jingchao eager to try. "the climate, topography, soil and other conditions in our hometown are very similar to those in Renshou County, so why can't we try it?"

At that time, the organization was trying to arrange for him to give play to his remaining heat in the post of director of the provincial counselor's office. "but I want to go back to the village and be a farmer." Fan Jingchao decisively rejected the organizational arrangement, and finally got understood after many times of communication.

In 2008, the "hall official" returned to his hometown as he wished.

A lot of questions and grievances.

This veteran cadre, who has not done farm work for many years, went back alone.

"at that time, the whole family opposed it." During his political career, Fan Jingchao spent less time with his family because of frequent regional movements. "after retirement, why do you have to go to the countryside without a rest in your old age?" "if you go back to your hometown alone, you will have no security for your basic life in the village." The family strongly opposed it.

For Fan Jingchao, who has no experience in citrus growing, the resistance to returning to his hometown is more than that. "you are a good official, and you are willing to come back to be a farmer, and you still say that you have come to help the poor? Is that a lie? " The villagers did not understand Fan Jingchao's move to go back to the village to plant oranges.

Land transfer is the first unavoidable problem in the construction of orchards. Due to the demand for transportation, industrial roads and reservoirs, some fields will be hardened, attracting resistance from some villagers, and some people even say, "you have ruined our fengshui."

"at that time, many people in the village thought that if a 60-year-old man screwed up after two years of work, what would we do with our money and land? Everyone has concerns. " Fan Jingchao's neighbor Liu Mingzhen said.

In the face of doubts, Fan Jingchao communicated with the villagers door to door, constantly explaining the benefits of building an orchard: he could not worry about the annual rent of the territory, there were jobs on his doorstep, and the conditions in the village were improved before he finally gained general support.

Fan Jingchao single-handedly handled the road construction, from planning and command to coordinating construction.

After seeing the road repaired little by little and the orchard looking ahead, Fan Jingchao invited 18 technicians who knew how to plant from other places. From then on, he got up at 5 o'clock every morning to cook for the workers. "without natural gas, he could only burn firewood, adding wood to the stove while hurriedly shoveling it in the pot." After finishing the housework, he went to the orchard with the workers.

Since starting his business, Fan Jingchao's habit of "walking at least 10 kilometers a day to solve problems in the orchard" continues to this day. "at first, there were only 505 Qingjian trees, but now the area of the citrus orchard has reached 10100 mu, and we plan to increase it by about 6000 mu to 16000 mu in 2016." Fan Jingchao pointed to the slogan in the office: "Ten years of development has drawn a blueprint, the action industry of a hundred villages has flourished, a thousand mountains have become an orchard, and thousands of people have become rich to build a new village." he told the reporter excitedly.

The villagers have a deep feeling about this change. "in the past, the mountains in the village were basically 'green from a distance, but nothing was done up close', and there were abandoned fields everywhere." Zhang Anchang, an 84-year-old villager, said. Today, on the road from Chengdu to Jingyan County along National Highway 213, the huge "Orange Dream Garden" sign is eye-catching, and the fruit trees are covered with golden oranges covered with paper film.

After Fan Jingchao's return to his hometown to grow oranges was first exposed by the media, while being highly praised, there were also a lot of questions-"how did you get the funding for your project?" "he must have been another corrupt official when he was in office."

Fan Jingchao felt aggrieved when he heard these accusations. The fund of more than 100,000 yuan at the start was my savings. When the area of the orchard expanded to 100 mu, I scraped together hundreds of thousands of yuan from relatives and friends. When the orchard expanded to 600 mu, Fan Jingchao mobilized his family to sell his house in Chengdu and his father's house in Leshan.

"as a result, relations at home have become more tense." Fan Jingchao's wife had to move in with her daughter's family and moved to the village with him after retiring in 2015. "she felt that what I did became a thankless and thankless thing because of these reports. I suffered but somehow blackened myself." Fan Jingchao said with a wry smile.

Encourage more young people to return to their hometown to start a business

In 1969, Fan Jingchao graduated from high school and became a private teacher, then became a public teacher and worked at a radio station. Since then, he has embarked on an official career, from department level to department level. Although the act of "walking out of the village and coming back" was puzzling to others, it seemed to him to be a natural thing.

Fan Jingchao mentioned the Red Flag Canal to reporters more than once. He has always idolized Yang Gui, who led the whole county to build the Red Flag Canal in 10 years. "his responsibility is really amazing." Fan Jingchao said, "after working for many years, I feel the backwardness of my hometown every time I go home. It would be a pity if I could not use my ability to change the appearance of my hometown by exploring modern agriculture."

Talking about the local development model, he has a clear train of thought: "2 people in Sichuan live in hills, and there are many people and few resources in hilly areas." In today's rural areas, there are three major problems: the traditional planting industry has low efficiency and can not retain young people; the rural labor force is aging day by day; and there are more and more abandoned land. My hometown is representative in these three aspects. The way to solve these problems is modern agriculture. "

Fan Jingchao spent more than 300 days in the countryside every year after returning to his hometown for more than 8 years. In order to drive the villagers to get rich together, in 2011, he initiated the establishment of a hybrid citrus professional cooperative. According to the concept of "landlord development, special organization services, and farmers' seed management to get rich", the villagers bought shares in the land and collected the rent through drought and waterlogging.