Striking Gold in the Cracks of Stones: Stone-Crevice Planting Helps Farmers Increase Income
This year marks the 95th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, and it is also the opening year of the implementation of the "13th Five-Year Plan." In order to fully demonstrate the vanguard and exemplary role of Communist Party members and the fighting fortress role of Party organizations, further stimulate the vitality of Party organizations and Party members and cadres throughout the city, and vigorously create a strong atmosphere of striving for excellence, this newspaper is launching today the column "Practicing 'Two Studies and One Action,' Striving to Be Pioneers and Exemplars," which will successively report on the advanced deeds of those in our city recommended as outstanding Communist Party members, outstanding Party affairs workers, and advanced grassroots Party organizations of the autonomous region. Please stay tuned.
He is an ordinary grassroots Party member who, after returning from working elsewhere, founded a fruit and vegetable cooperative named after himself. Over 7 years, he has provided free training to more than 400 returning migrant workers and helped local residents secure loans to build fruit and vegetable planting greenhouses, becoming a well-known leader in wealth creation throughout the township. He is Ou Gaolong, a returning migrant worker and leader in achieving prosperity through science and technology in Masi Township, Xincheng County.
Growing Hami Melons in the Cracks of Stones
Ou Gaolong, 38 years old this year, wears a pair of glasses and looks gentle and refined, not at all like a boss. But it is precisely this ordinary Zhuang young man who serves as the chairman of the Gaolong Fruit and Vegetable Cooperative in Masi Township,
successfully registered and established Gaolong Agricultural Development Co., Ltd., with a cumulative investment of more than 8.5 million yuan to build two major projects: fruit and vegetable greenhouses covering an area of 350 mu and an ecological farm. This year, it is expected to produce 1 million kilograms of fruits and vegetables, with an annual profit of more than 3 million yuan.
In 2009, Ou Gaolong was still just a returning migrant worker. The hardships of working elsewhere made him decide to return home and start a business. Masi Village in Masi Township is located in the rocky mountainous area of Xincheng County, where natural conditions are poor. Farmers relied only on growing traditional corn and sugarcane, which basically provided subsistence but could not make them wealthy. After returning home, Ou Gaolong began to worry: where was the way forward for starting a business?
At the beginning of that year, after being sent by the village committee to study at the county Party school and in Nanning, Shanghai, and other places, Ou Gaolong came into contact with techniques related to greenhouse fruit and vegetable cultivation. With a strong sense of innovation, Ou Gaolong immediately realized that this was a new path to wealth, and he decided to return home to grow Hami melons.
However, Xincheng County belongs to a rocky mountainous area with an alpine climate, unsuitable for Hami melon growth. But this stubborn young man refused to give in. He began to learn greenhouse fruit and vegetable cultivation techniques, determined to carve out a path to wealth in his hometown, the place least suitable for growing Hami melons.
After returning home, Ou Gaolong immediately reported to the village committee and gained its support and began construction without delay. Facing greenhouse fruit and vegetable cultivation, a newly emerging endeavor, although Ou Gaolong had learned quite a lot of techniques from books, he was still uncertain whether the local climate and soil could adapt to Hami melons. Moreover, at that time no place in the entire county had successfully grown them, and there was no experience to draw on. But with an entrepreneurial spirit, he decided to innovate boldly and take on something no one in the village had ever done. In March of that year, the village Party committee raised 120,000 yuan through multiple channels and built 15 fruit and vegetable planting greenhouses, which were handed over to Ou Gaolong to operate.
At the beginning of Hami melon cultivation, because Ou Gaolong was not yet proficient in techniques such as fertilizing, water control, and temperature control, the planting failed. In 2009, the first crop of Hami melons yielded nothing, with a loss of more than 30,000 yuan. But Ou Gaolong did not give in. He invited experienced melon farmers from elsewhere and studied cultivation techniques intensively.
Every April is the season for planting Hami melons. In order to prepare materials and raise seedlings in time for the season, Ou Gaolong's family of three ate and slept in the fruit shed. Hami melon cultivation requires great attention to technique. Sometimes, in order to figure out what disease the plants had contracted, he would stay in the stuffy fruit shed for four or five hours at a time. Whenever he encountered something he did not understand, he would look for books or go online to check information. From rooting to sprouting, and then to growth and flowering, Ou Gaolong managed the fruit shed as carefully as if he were caring for his own child. After several months of devoted study, Ou Gaolong became an expert melon grower. That year, the second crop of Hami melons achieved a bumper harvest.
Leading the Way to Wealth Without Forgetting Fellow Villagers
Hami melons are planted twice a year, with an average yield of more than 3,000 kilograms per mu and a purchase price of 3.5 yuan/kg. At this price, one greenhouse can bring in a per capita net income of more than 6,000 yuan per year. Having tasted success, Ou Gaolong saw hope. In 2010, through self-raised funds and loans, he raised 500,000 yuan and expanded the greenhouse scale to the current 150.
Remembering the source of his prosperity, Ou Gaolong actively led returning migrant workers to become wealthy together. Facing people who came to visit and learn because of his reputation, he taught planting techniques without reservation, and using the greenhouses as a base, he organized training for more than 400 returning migrant workers. Under his active leadership, starting in 2010, Masi Township set off a wave of developing modern high-efficiency agriculture. At present, more than 50 Party members and returning migrant workers have built more than 600 fruit and vegetable planting greenhouses at the entrepreneurship base in Masi Village, covering an area of more than 300 mu. He provides unified technical guidance and agricultural product sales services, and established the Masi Township Gaolong Fruit and Vegetable Greenhouse Cooperative.
The fruit and vegetable base led by Ou Gaolong adopts the cooperative production and operation models of "labor union + cooperative + base" and "cooperative + base + farming households," implements production based on sales, uses order contracts to constrain and standardize the behavior of the three parties in production, supply, and marketing, and targets chain supermarkets and high-end fruit markets in the Pearl River Delta and the cities of the Beibu Gulf in Guangxi, ensuring the sales channels for the project's products.
"Repeatedly planting the same type of melon on the same land easily leads to pests and diseases." Ou Gaolong said that to solve this problem, the most fundamental way is to adjust the industrial structure and implement diversified planting. To this end, Ou Gaolong began researching and planting watermelons, blueberries, grapes, and various seasonal vegetables, and achieved success.
In 2010, responding to the demands of the people, Ou Gaolong organized an expansion of the production scale, carrying out crop rotation according to "plant Hami melons in spring, watermelons in summer, Hami melons in autumn, and off-season vegetables in winter," implementing the "five unifications" business model (unified planning, planting, management, technical services, and sales), and also established the Masi Township Gaolong Fruit and Vegetable Labor Union Committee, absorbing more than 30 returning migrant workers from the entire township as members. Through hands-on operation, after mastering relevant planting techniques, members then brought the techniques back to their villages to operate, continuously expanding the planting scale.
At present, the cooperative has registered and established Gaolong Agricultural Development Co., Ltd., built two major projects, fruit and vegetable greenhouses and an ecological farm, and innovatively carried out the "company + base + poor households" targeted poverty alleviation model. The per capita annual income of local planting farmers has reached more than 6,000 yuan, effectively promoting targeted poverty alleviation and the development of modern agriculture in Masi Township. For this reason, Ou Gaolong has also received many honors, including National Youth Leader in Wealth Creation, Model Worker of the Autonomous Region, "King of Scientific and Technological Planting and Breeding," "Expert in Achieving Prosperity through Science and Technology," and Model Worker of Laibin City's "Ten Years of Entrepreneurship."