What Makes Money in Rural Areas Now? Five New Wealth-Building Projects Recommended
As for what makes the most money in rural areas now, many friends around me come from rural areas, and after working for many years they all have ideas about starting businesses. Rural projects are gradually becoming popular, and college students returning to their hometowns to start businesses has become a trend again. Transforming rural areas seems to have become a mission for those of us who come from rural areas and went to college. But here I need to remind everyone that ideals must be there, but you must also be able to see the consequences. Entrepreneurship is not about rushing forward with a hot head; that era is long gone. Instead, you need to do things with conviction. Calmness and rationality are essential qualities for modern entrepreneurs. Because the entrepreneurs who ultimately remain are certainly a group of people with brains, knowledge and courage. The examples below are simply collected and screened according to my working habits, for reference only. If you have better ideas and opinions, you are welcome to follow and exchange views.
Opening a Specialty Agricultural Products Online Store, Netting 200,000 yuan a Year
Key points:Start with a small-scale operation as a trial before pursuing growth; do not rush in from the very beginning or seek to be big and comprehensive all at once. Moreover, rural people are relatively conservative and will not act until they see the rabbit, so successful examples are still needed to guide them.
Jiao Xiaogang, born into an ordinary farming family in Kelan County, graduated from university in 2013 and opened the first specialty agricultural products online store in his hometown with his younger brother, trying to sell red kidney beans produced by his own family in the shop. After repeated efforts at promotion and operation, he finally sold all 5,000 jin of red beans stored at home at three times the market price. The joy of a successful small-scale trial gave him hope and won him trust. He began to simultaneously list some distinctive local minor coarse grains for sale. As the products became richer, orders poured in like snowflakes. In 2014, he not only sold out his own family's coarse grains but also helped relatives in neighboring villages sell theirs, netting 200,000 yuan that year. By 2016 the company's sales reached 910,000 yuan, helping people sell more than 30,000 jin of red kidney beans, more than 30,000 jin of black beans, more than 20,000 jin of millet, more than 80,000 jin of oat flour, and more than 70,000 jin of cake flour, as well as 500,000 local mooncakes.
Making Shoes from Loofah with an Ingenious Twist, on the Road to Prosperity
Key points:Create a new product and become the only one in the industry; the road to money will naturally be broad.
Zhang Youwang, whose family was poor when he was young and who only studied through the third grade of primary school, relied on his own intelligence and unremitting efforts to invent the "number one shoe in the world" and embark on the road to prosperity. Loofah sponge slices that have been soaked, bleached and split open are dried and then flattened and shaped for use in the production of various finished shoes. In the cutting room, we saw a large pile of loofah sponge slices in various shapes: some for producing bath products, some for making insoles, and some for making slippers. It is precisely here that, after die stamping, each strip of loofah gains new life and becomes vivid. The soles and uppers of this grass-linen loofah shoe are both made from grass linen, with loofah added to the soles. Loofah sponge has the medicinal effect of dredging collaterals and invigorating blood, making it a superior health product; ramie, meanwhile, is a perennial root herbaceous plant known as the "king of natural fibers," light yet tough, quick to absorb and release moisture, and highly breathable. The combination of the two naturally has advantages and a unique style that other fibers cannot match. Added to purely handmade production, it is quite popular in the market.
Yellow Cattle Farming: A Little Expert at Getting Rich
Key points:Policy support, scientific farming
In 2008, Wang Guirong and her husband returned to their hometown from working abroad to start their own business. Through investigation they learned that Tongshang Village has rich land resources, good climatic conditions, and strong advantages in both crop farming and livestock breeding, and Wang Guirong saw her entrepreneurial prospects. She successively bought 50 Yanbian yellow cattle as startup capital, hired technicians from various sources, and adopted scientific breeding methods, expanding to more than 100 head in less than 2 years. With strong support from higher-level policies, in 2010 she established the Longjing Chuangxing Cattle Breeding Base, built a standard modern cowshed of 700 sq m and a silage pit of 2,300 cubic meters. It now has 360 breeding cows on hand, markets 300 beef cattle annually, and reaches an annual output value of several million.
Raising Crayfish in Rice Fields, "Swimming" Out a Road to Wealth
Key points:Government-led, collective prosperity
In recent years, Xiaohe Town in Xiaochang County, Xiaogan City, Hubei, has actively guided farmers to "take the market as the guide and efficiency as the center," vigorously adjust the agricultural industrial structure, actively leverage its own ecological resource and environmental advantages, and develop ecological modern agriculture and leisure ecological tourism according to local conditions, opening a path of ecological, green and efficient sustainable development.
Raising shrimp in rice fields is a new farming model, because rice can promote the rapid growth of shrimp, and shrimp can help rice eliminate pests. In the high heat of midsummer, dense rice is a good place for shrimp to seek shade. At the same time, the pests that harm rice need no pesticide spraying, because they all become delicious food for the crayfish. The high-quality growth of rice and the good returns from crayfish are inseparable from a living environment with sufficient water and fresh water quality. In response to this need, the Xiaochang County Fisheries Bureau actively organized technical personnel to solve the problem of paddy field water pollution for farmers.
This symbiotic farming model will greatly increase farmers' incomes. On average, each mu of paddy field can produce 650 kg of organic rice and 165 kg of pollution-free crayfish, with a net income of 3,000 yuan per mu. The core demonstration base for comprehensive rice-shrimp farming in Xinyan Village, Xiaohe Town, has 2,130 mu of comprehensive rice-shrimp farming, with construction and renovation investment of more than 1.5 million yuan. After the base is completed, it can radiate and drive the county to develop a comprehensive rice-field farming and breeding area of more than 30,000 mu, create an output value of 160 million yuan, and achieve increased agricultural production and higher farmer incomes.
Building the Dendrobium nobile Industry into a 20 Billion yuan Industry
Key points:You must be clear about the risks of rural projects if you have no experience around you in farming and breeding projects.
Liao Xiaokang is a university graduate from Daozhen County in northern Guizhou. In the late 1980s he left a military enterprise and went into business, and after more than 10 years of hard work he had saved a little money. However, the poverty of his hometown weighed on his mind. In 2001, he resolutely took his newly married wife back to Daozhen to invest in the Chinese medicine industry, planting Gastrodia elata and introducing Dendrobium officinale from Zhejiang. Unexpectedly, not long after planting Gastrodia elata, the market price of Gastrodia elata plummeted, falling from a high of 300 yuan/kg to 15 yuan/kg, and he lost more than 10 million yuan on his first investment.
When heaven closes a door for you, it will surely open a window for you. In the summer of 2003, a leader in Zunyi City in charge of agricultural production suggested that he invest in Dendrobium nobile in Chishui. The mayor of Chishui met with him, and the two hit it off immediately. For Chishui, there was an urgent need for a leading enterprise to bring Dendrobium nobile onto the right track and make it bigger and stronger; for Liao Xiaokang, this was an opportunity to make a comeback.