A woman skilled at getting rich leads a "female soldier team" to prosperity together

Seven or eight consecutive days of overcast rain made Chen Shangju, who lives by the field ridge, furrow her brow. "I finally understand the plight of farmers now. I used to be a cadre, sitting in an office every day, no matter whether it was sunny or rainy. Now when it's sunny I hope for rain, and when it rains I hope for sunshine."

This gray-haired older sister in front of me was formerly the director of the Women's Federation in Pengcheng Management District of Baili Rhododendron Management District in Bijie City, and a village-assigned cadre in Dashui Village. In August 2016, in response to the city's call for targeted poverty alleviation, Chen Shangju was the first to step out of the office and established the Yishan Lake Planting and Breeding Cooperative in Jingmen Village. With a cooperative + farmer development model, she transferred 2,400 mu of land, developed the planting of oil peonies, local jingjie (a Chinese medicinal herb), and chili peppers, and also raised 105 boxes of bees, helping 94 households and 316 people escape poverty and increasing farmers' annual income by 800 yuan.

Of the farmers who come to work at the cooperative, 90% are local impoverished women. "In rural areas, men mostly control the family finances. Women just take care of their husbands and children and keep the house clean. If they want money, they have to ask the men for it." This is the real situation of rural women. Chen Shangju said that many years of work experience in the Women's Federation made her deeply feel the hardships of rural women, so most of her team are women, so that they can earn money through their own labor and find their own value.

Chen Shangju, now fifty years old, looks full of energy and high spirits. Whenever it is planting season, her figure can be seen everywhere on the hillsides and in the fields, hoe in hand alongside other women, leading villagers in digging pits, earthing up, and raising seedlings.

Sure enough, at the chili pepper planting base, the reporter saw Chen Shangju and her "female soldier team."

A family photo of the "female soldier team"

It is understood that in this "female soldier team," the youngest is 29 years old and the oldest is 78. The establishment of the cooperative has given impoverished women in Qihua Village, Qingmen Village, Miaojiao Village, and Qiaotou Village who want to work and want to earn money a channel to increase income and become prosperous. It has greatly stimulated the enthusiasm of impoverished women to participate in poverty alleviation, and more and more impoverished women have realized their dream of becoming rich.

Chen Shangju led her fellow villagers to earn money and live a better life. People in the village also gave her a nickname: "Chen the Manly." They often say: "Don't be fooled by the fact that she is a woman who sat in an office for decades. When she picks up a hoe, she is no worse than a man at farm work. During planting season, she leaves early and returns late every day, and no matter the wind, rain, sun, or showers, she earnestly guides everyone in their work."

Decades of office work left Chen Shangju lacking practical experience in agricultural planting and breeding techniques. For this reason, whenever she had free time, she would go online to look up relevant knowledge about planting and breeding, and she bought books on practical agricultural techniques to study carefully. In addition, with the support of Pengcheng Management District, she also led cooperative members to Zunyi, Chengdu, and other places many times for study tours. After returning from these trips, she guided the workers hand by hand in cutting seedlings and sowing seeds.

In addition to her own lack of agricultural planting and breeding knowledge, techniques, and experience, in her daily work Chen Shangju mostly dealt with rural people who for generations had been used to living off cultivated land. When they heard that the cooperative wanted to transfer their land, most were unwilling to cooperate, which added difficulties for her and the "female soldier team."

On June 18, Chen Shangju cried bitterly over the land transfer matter. Choking up, she said, "A few days ago, a farmer saw that the cooperative had transferred his family's land to plant chili peppers and thought the situation looked promising, so he came to us saying he wanted the land back and no longer wanted to transfer it, because he wanted to plant chili peppers himself. No matter how we explained, we could not get through to him." Chen Shangju took a deep breath and said helplessly, "Without land, and without the participation of the people, it is very difficult for our cooperative to keep operating. In order to win the support of the people, my companions and I often had to go to people's homes late at night to do ideological work, explaining policies to them and calculating the accounts clearly, so they would understand that transferring land to the cooperative for unified operation and management would bring far higher returns than their traditional planting."

As she spoke, Chen Shangju's cheeks were already covered with tear stains. Chen Shangju said firmly, "But since I chose to walk this road, then even if I have to crawl, I will crawl my way out. A person lives only a few decades, and should do meaningful things. Even after I retire in the future, I will still unite the villagers and pursue prosperity."

Although the projects currently implemented by the cooperative have not yet produced economic benefits, looking at the smiles on the faces of the female soldier team, even with all the bitterness in her heart, Chen Shangju felt a trace of sweetness. She told the reporter: "By founding an agricultural professional cooperative, we want to let villagers find a new path to increase returns. I lead the villagers in doing it, and do it for the villagers to see, so that they truly have the confidence and determination to escape poverty and become prosperous."

(Staff reporter Quan Ruoqing)