In the golden autumn of October, Fojianxi pears enter harvest season in Maoshanhou Village, Jinhaihu Town, Pinggu District. Big pears hang all over branches. Since 2021, Ren Zhengguang, Associate Professor of College of Bioscience and Resource Environment, BUA, has led students to establish a science yard in the village, guiding fruit farmers to prevent and control pear tree diseases and insect pests in a green way and conduct specialized management. Their efforts have helped remove the pear diseases, such as the diplodia rot, that have troubled the fruit farmers for years, and improve the quality and output of pears. In 2024, the incomes of many pear orchards in Maoshanhou Village are expected to double.

On October 3, Ren Zhengguang, along with three students stationed in the village, visited the orchards one by one to check the ripening progress of pears. The fruit farmers were busy unbagging the pears in the orchards. Several days later, the pears will be naturally colored pink by the sunlight and become sweeter, ready to be picked and sold in the market.

"Hello, Professor Ren. We see much fewer black spots and basically no pear psyllas this year. Come and look. Both leaves and peels are smoother than before," said a villager surnamed Ma with a smile. He sent warmly greeting to Professor Ren and the students. He said, "Last year, we used just 7,000 bags for the pears in the orchard, but 19,000 this year. The final yield rate will be about 60-70%. And the income is expected to double."

Having been planted in Maoshanhou Village for a long time, Fojianxi pears are the best-known specialty of the village. Thanks to their special nutrition, taste and appearance, they are priced 2-3 times higher than other varieties of pears. However, pears in the village have seen frequent disease outbreaks and insect attacks in recent years. Fruit farmers have tried every means, but the efforts were almost in vain. Since the establishment of science yard, Professor Ren has led students to visit the orchards one by one to find out why. By measuring the content of elements in the soil and pears in the orchards, they finally identified the root cause of the black spot disease and diplodia rot disease attacking the pears – the abuse of fertilizer and unfermented manure causes imbalanced absorption of soil elements by the pear trees.

Based on local conditions, Professor Ren and the students developed and promoted the bacterial manure and microbial inoculum suitable for the growing of Fojianxi pears, while reducing the use of fertilizer and chemical pesticide by green means like introducing the insects as the natural enemies of the disease and pest, hanging pest lures, spraying microbial inoculum, and planting grass under the trees. Professor Ren said, "Effects are the key to making the fruit farmer trust and use the new technology." So, they set up a "Doctors' Farm" in the village to demonstrate and promote the green technologies, particularly bio-technologies, for preventing and controlling plant disease and insect pests.

Like Mr. Ma, more and more fruit farmers have seen bumper harvest, successively visiting Professor Ren and the students for advice.

"For the single-layer fruit bags, we should open the bottom for ventilation or tear the bags into strips, and remove the bags days later. For two-layer bags, we can remove the outer bag first, and remove the inner bag and the binding wires days later," Professor Ren explained patiently, saying doing so is to allow the fruit to gradually adapt to the external environment and thus be better colored.

"The fruit in the trees have no holidays," He said happily. With the joint efforts of the teachers, students and fruit farmers, Fojianxi pears see both higher quality and more output this year. Moreover, the students intend to leverage their expertise and start livestreams to help the villagers market the pears and make the sweet and juicy fruit known and accessible to more people.