Fengdu County: Hongxin pomelo holds up farmers' dream of getting rid of poverty and becoming rich

The pomelo tree is covered with red pomelo.

Fengdu Hongxin pomelo has been planted for more than 100 years. In the 1990s, Fengdu opened the prelude to the great development of Hongxin pomelo from 25 mu of experimental fields. After years of careful cultivation, in Sanyuan and other major producing areas, Hongxin pomelo has propped up half of the sky for local farmers to shake off poverty and become rich, and the brand and reputation of Fengdu Hongxin pomelo have become more and more famous.

Red heart pomelo has become a "cash cow" for farmers.

It is another bumper harvest year and another year of red pomelo fragrance. Sanyuan Town in late autumn is full of fruitful fruits, and red-heart pomelo can be seen everywhere on the side of the road like a hill. In front and behind the house, huge red-heart pomelo bends its branches, envies tourists and enriches villagers.

Zong Pingfang, a villager of Maliu Village in Sanyuan Town, is also a typical poor family. Because their two daughters go to college and rely on their husband's income from odd jobs, the family is in a dilemma of living beyond its means.

"since my daughter was in high school, the family's income was not enough to cover her expenses. Before this year, the whole family was still living in an old house with an earthen structure halfway up the mountain. " Zong Pingfang said.

Sanyuan Town has a tradition of growing red pomelo. In 1992, Zong Pingfang's family began to grow red heart pomelo.

"at that time, Hongxin pomelo was not so famous, and the variety was not very good. At first, only one or two plants were planted, and they were grafted and improved at the same time, and the scale was expanded at the same time. Over the past two years, they have begun to produce benefits." Zong Pingfang said that in 2008, Maliu Village developed red pomelo on a large scale, distributing seedlings and training techniques free of charge, and she also hitched a ride.

Today, Zong Pingfang's family has planted 4 mu of grapefruit trees, and 40 to 50 trees have come into fruit production.

Behind Zong Pingfang's house, in the dry land and by the paddy fields, yellow grapefruit hung all over the branches.

Zong Pingfang told me that more than 30 grapefruit trees can be planted in an acre of land, and fruit can be produced three to five years later. In a normal year, a tree can bear 30 or 40 red pomelos. The big one weighs nearly 3 jin and can be sold for more than 8 yuan. The smallest can be sold for two or three yuan each. On average, a red heart pomelo costs 5 yuan, a tree can sell for about 200 yuan, and an mu of land has an income of 6,000 to 7,000 yuan. If it is well managed and protected, it will be more than that.

"Last year, this tree sold for more than 800 yuan, and this year it will not be less than 600 yuan." Zong Pingfang pointed to a red-heart pomelo fruit tree nearby and said that this year, with the money saved from planting red-heart pomelo, he bought a small building on the side of the road with two floors and one floor, and opened a small supermarket with the support of village cadres.

Hu Zhibo, secretary of the party committee of Sanyuan Town, said that Fengdu Hongxin pomelo is becoming more and more famous, more and more people go to Sanyuan Town to buy Hongxin pomelo, and poor people like Zong Pingfang will become more and more prosperous.

Opportunities brought by the development of Hongxin pomelo

The vigorous development of red-heart pomelo brings villagers not only the economic income from selling pomelo, but also constantly improving infrastructure and unprecedented development opportunities.

The 45-year-old Longyingguo was originally a poor family with a card, and his Miaoba Village Group 2 was also one of the earliest bases for planting red heart pomelo. In the past, like other villagers, he made a living by growing crops and worried about the college tuition fees of his two daughters every year. But now, Longyingguo is not only a big local grower of red pomelo, but also a big beef farmer.

"in the past, the country road was not only difficult for people to walk, but also impossible for cars to drive in and out, so it was not easy to do anything." Long Yingguo said that because of the inconvenience of transportation in the past, it restricted the development of the local economy, and he could not get an economic income by growing some crops on his own, and he carried it on his shoulder to buy chemical fertilizer and so on.

"in the past two years, in order to develop red-heart pomelo, the roads in our village have almost been built to the doorstep of our house, and the industrial sidewalks in the fields have also hardened, and the guests who sell grapefruit are all driving to the trees to pick them." Long Yingguo said that since the traffic improvement, he has been thinking about how to increase income and become rich, and has planted more than 100 red pomelo trees.

Red-heart pomelo growers all know that if you want to grow red-heart pomelo with a good sense of export and sell each other, you must apply farm manure. In 2013, Longyingguo set up a beef cattle farm, watering grapefruit trees with cow droppings, not only ensuring the quality of red heart pomelo, but also preventing environmental pollution caused by cow dung.

Last year, Longyingguo's beef cattle farm produced 9 beef cattle, which sold more than 100,000 yuan, and Hongxin pomelo sold more than 20,000 yuan.

"according to the current market, the output value of Hongxin pomelo is expected to be more than 30,000 yuan. At present, there are 19 shelf cattle and 10 calves on the farm. The planting scale and breeding scale of my family will gradually expand, and we will certainly be able to make a career. " Long Yingguo said.