For orange growers, villagers, digitalization pays dividends

Rocky road to success

In 2002, Wu and his family traveled 1,000 kilometers from their hometown in Zigui county of Hubei province to Xiaomi township of Huichang county, Jiangxi province, to grow navel oranges.

His family had planted oranges in Zigui for about two decades before moving to Huichang, having saved about 200,000 yuan ($29,821) from selling the fruit.

When they arrived, Wu and his three elder brothers planned to lease 26.67 hectares of land, but supportive policies led them to invest all their savings and lease about 67.

"After planting in 2004, we encountered financial challenges that lasted until our business started to make a profit in 2011," Wu said.

"Based on our experience in our hometown, we believed after three years the trees could produce enough fruit to cover our startup costs," he said. "However, we didn't do enough research or have technical support. The soil in Huichang is not fertile, so we had to use more organic fertilizer, which caused the investment to exceed our budget. After three years, we were very short on funds."

Wang said their financial situation was indeed serious.

"It may sound ridiculous, but it was true that every time I went back to my hometown and met my relatives and friends, the first thing that came to my mind was, could this person lend me some money?" she said. To help offset their financial woes, the couple raised pigs, grew watermelons and pruned other people's orchards. Wang said their employees earned 12 yuan a day at that time and worked for eight hours, while she and Wu worked for more than 12 hours a day and did a large part of the work themselves to save money on costs.

"We got up before 5 am and often worked until nearly 8 pm. While many farmers were finishing their dinners, we were still collecting farm tools in the fields or riding our tricycles back home," she said.

When their watermelons were ripe, the couple would head to the fields at 4 am to harvest them. Their 18-month-old daughter would still be sleeping, so they would put her in a basket while they worked. Then they would go door-to-door selling the fruit after breakfast.

By 2011, the couple had paid back all of their roughly 600,000 yuan debt as their orange business began to make a profit. They currently employ 60 workers, most of whom are age 50 and older, to grow and manage about 46.67 hectares of oranges and about 8,000 chickens.