Local Expert Jiang Xiaolong Shares His Experience of Getting Rich

"Last year I planted 10 mu of sweet potatoes and made quite a lot of money. The sweet potatoes, with a yield of over 3,000 kg per mu, were processed into starch noodles and earned me 6,000 yuan, bringing the total income from the 10 mu to 60,000 yuan. This is all thanks to Jiang Xiaolong, the 'local expert' in our village, who found us a path to wealth," said Feng Hesheng, a villager from Zhaozhuang Village, Rengu Town, Tangyin County, on May 19. "And it's not just my family. Most of the farmers in the village have gotten rich by growing sweet potatoes under Jiang Xiaolong's guidance and encouragement."

Jiang Xiaolong, the man Feng Hesheng mentioned, is an ordinary farmer from Zhaozhuang Village. In 2006, Jiang Xiaolong actively responded to the town government's call to adjust the planting structure. Considering that the village soil was mostly sandy and well suited to sweet potatoes, he tried planting 6 mu of sweet potatoes on his own land. Half of it was planted with a sweet potato variety suitable for roasting, and the other half with a variety that could be processed into starch. "Traditional farming relies on experience. As the saying goes, you don't need to learn farm work; just do what others do. But in reality it's not that easy. Farming is skilled work," Jiang Xiaolong said. To bring in good varieties and learn techniques, he traveled to Shandong, Shanxi and other places, learning from large-scale sweet potato growers as his mentors. Following the cultivation techniques in publications, he covered the soil with plastic film after planting the sweet potato slips and used chemical control techniques to prevent the seedlings from growing too tall. Hard work pays off. He succeeded in the very first year, with the two sweet potato plots yielding 2,500 kg and 3,000 kg respectively. That year sweet potatoes were in short supply on the market, and his 6 mu of sweet potatoes brought a net income of 70,000 yuan, more than 7 times that of growing grain. The high income made Jiang Xiaolong set his sights on the sweet potato planting industry.

In order to develop the sweet potato planting industry on a large scale and help the people around him increase their income and get rich, in 2008 Jiang Xiaolong shared his experience of growing sweet potatoes with the "two committees" of Zhaozhuang Village, and the "two committees" mobilized the whole village to adjust the planting structure and switch to sweet potatoes. Jiang Xiaolong taught his planting techniques to the growers in the village without holding anything back. Driven by Jiang Xiaolong, more than 300 villagers switched to growing sweet potatoes the following year, with a planting area of over 100 mu and an income of more than 5,000 yuan per mu. Among them were quite a few tech-savvy growers. Old Lu, 65, from the village, intercropped 2 mu of sweet potatoes in his own watermelon field, earning an annual income of more than 30,000 yuan. Having tasted the benefits, Old Lu praised Jiang Xiaolong to everyone he met: "Jiang Xiaolong really has a knack for growing sweet potatoes! Watermelons and sweet potatoes both do well, making money above ground and below ground."

Seeing the villagers' growing enthusiasm for growing sweet potatoes, Jiang Xiaolong made new plans. Sweet potato starch has a wide range of uses, and sweet potato starch noodles are the finest of all starch noodles, which led him to invest in the deep-processing industry of sweet potatoes. From washing the sweet potatoes to grinding them into pulp, letting the starch settle, and finally making starch noodles, there are 6 steps in total, and he checked every one of them. After the sweet potato starch noodles were produced, they were well received by the market. His starch noodles became an instant hit and attracted many buyers from out of town. Whenever the noodles were ready, buyers would line up at Jiang Xiaolong's door to purchase them, and demand exceeded supply. At the same time, Jiang Xiaolong hired more than 20 nearby villagers to help, increasing the income of his fellow villagers.

Today, the pattern of sweet potato planting, processing and sales in Zhaozhuang Village has taken shape. Because the starch noodles Jiang Xiaolong makes taste good and look good, they are especially popular with consumers. Every December, "noodle buyers" from Beijing, Shandong and other places come specially to order starch noodles, so there is no need to worry about sales at all.

"Just think, this year the sweet potatoes have only just been planted, and Beijing has already called to order 5,000 kg of starch noodles. As long as we grow good sweet potatoes, we won't have to worry about not being able to sell the sweet potato starch noodles," Jiang Xiaolong said. He said he is a native-born, true farmer, and his biggest dream is to make an even bigger name for himself in growing sweet potatoes and lead the villagers to get rich together.