Vegetables Can Grow on Paper Too: Dong Fanyun's Paper-Based Vegetable Growing Method

With just an ordinary A4 sheet of paper, no chemical fertilizers and no pesticides, you can grow vegetables. Nowadays, this kind of balcony vegetable that is both ornamental and edible is gradually taking off in Hohhot, and the person who introduced this soilless growing method is a young woman who came out of a farming family in Huade County, Ulanqab City. Her name is Dong Fanyun.

Every morning, Dong Fanyun arrives on time at her small community vegetable garden to tend her sprouts. In her eyes, every sprout is like one of her children. The tender green sprouts are dotted with glistening droplets of water, looking especially lovely under the sunlight. Being among them always lifts her spirits.

"One sheet of paper, a handful of seeds, one tray, one spray bottle, and you harvest a tray of vegetables." Dong Fanyun's entrepreneurial story begins in 2014: at that time, having just graduated from Inner Mongolia Construction Vocational and Technical College, she did not want to be like most people and simply settle for finding a job. Stubborn as she was, she had always wanted to carve out a world of her own following her interests. By chance, she came across a report on paper-based vegetable growing broadcast on CCTV's agriculture channel, and this simple, easy-to-do paper-based growing technique deeply attracted her. From then on, her enthusiasm for growing vegetables on paper became unstoppable. At first, she bought seeds from grain and oil shops and studied on her own at home. Because she did not really understand the characteristics of the seeds, many of them went bad and the growing results were not ideal. So she went to Beijing to learn from the experts, studying professional sprout-growing techniques.

After returning from Beijing, in order to develop sprout vegetables better, Dong Fanyun decided to use traditional vegetables to help bring sprouts into the market. Together with a friend, she contracted greenhouses to grow vegetables. From then on, Dong Fanyun took the bus from the city to near the greenhouses every day, then walked 2 km to reach them, and her day's work began. Cutting grass, turning soil, making ridges - this young woman never complained of hardship or fatigue. Sometimes she was so busy that she lost track of time and spent the night in the greenhouse. After the first greenhouse of vegetables ripened, the poor appearance drove the price down very low, not even enough to cover the transport cost, and she could only watch helplessly as the vegetables rotted in the field. For the first time, she experienced the hardships of starting a business.

But this only strengthened her determination to switch to growing sprout vegetables. Compared with traditional vegetables, sprout vegetables can be grown in measured quantities: traditional vegetables need soil and fertilizer, while sprout vegetables need only water and sunlight. From seed selection to harvest, it takes just 7 to 15 days - simple and easy to do. Dong Fanyun began to learn from the approach of a teacher in Beijing, making balcony vegetables so that every family can grow them and can eat fresh living sprout vegetables. By sending pictures and messages through WeChat, she won recognition from many people, who helped her promote sprout vegetables together.

Today, Dong Fanyun has registered the Xincheng District Green Mass Sprout Growing Center. Many communities are also actively helping her carry out promotion activities for small balcony vegetable gardens, and have provided her with a dedicated office and a small experimental growing base. Dong Fanyun feels that her entrepreneurial dream is getting closer and closer.

Dong Fanyun also has many plans for the future: after spreading small balcony vegetable gardens throughout the communities, she wants to set up a growing base, develop some new sprout vegetable varieties, and promote finished sprout vegetables to restaurants, hot pot restaurants, weight-loss and beauty centers, supermarkets... Dong Fanyun also wants to have her own sprout vegetable restaurant, sprout vegetable creative hall, fish pond, and chicken farm, just like a real-life version of "QQ Farm," so as to create jobs for more people.