Xie Guangrong, a leader in poverty alleviation through prosperity in Zhouning County, struck gold with vegetable plots and achieved poverty alleviation
Her life has been full of hardships. At 18, she took on the heavy burden of the household, and all the physical labor at home fell on her. Through hard work, life became a little easier, but then her mother became paralyzed and she herself was diagnosed with cirrhosis. Yet she was not defeated by these difficulties. Today, she grows over 50 mu of vegetables, has built a vegetable preservation warehouse, and earns an annual income of more than 100,000 yuan. She is Xie Guangrong, a leader in escaping poverty and achieving prosperity in Chiyan Village, Siqiao Township, Zhouning County.
A frail pair of shoulders holds up a family
In Xie Guangrong's vegetable base in Chiyan Village, cauliflower plants tens of centimeters tall bathe in the sunlight, arranged neatly in rows, full of vitality.
Xie Guangrong is squatting beside a ridge, pulling out weeds nearby, while her husband is on the other side tidying the furrows, preparing to plant a second batch of cauliflower.
Xie Guangrong is a true farmer from Chiyan Village. After joining the village cooperative in 2016, she contracted 50 mu of land to grow cauliflower, peppers, green beans and other vegetables. She said she loves spending all day exploring in the fields. These vegetables are like her own children; watching them take root, grow and bear fruit makes her very happy. Growing vegetables brings her joy and confidence.
Xie Guangrong, now 48, has spent most of her life fighting poverty. Looking back, her eyes fill with tears. At the age of 9, because her parents were in poor health and the family was impoverished, unable to feed three children, her father gritted his teeth and gave her away. At her adoptive parents' home, she busied herself with farm work all day long.
At the age of 18, sad news came: her younger brother, only 15, died young. Her parents were grief-stricken. Her mother was in poor health, and her father had old injuries and could not do physical labor. Her youngest brother was only 12. Looking at this precarious family, she persuaded her adoptive parents and decided to return home.
At 18, a time that should be the flower season of life, Xie Guangrong used her frail shoulders to hold up a family. Raising pigs, farming, cutting firewood, picking tea - all the physical labor at home depended on her. "Back then we were so poor we couldn't even afford to eat; we had to fill our stomachs with sweet potato rice and potatoes. If a guest came, we had to borrow grain," Xie Guangrong said. "The family was too poor and life too hard. I couldn't leave home to live a comfortable life on my own. When I reached marriageable age, I followed the advice of family and relatives and married a young man named Zhang Yibao into the family."
After marriage, three sons were born one after another. The family could not survive on farming and tea-picking alone. To increase income, Xie Guangrong and her husband got up at past 3 every morning to fetch water, knead dough and fry youtiao. At dawn, they went to nearby villages to hawk their goods. After selling the youtiao, they continued with farm work and took care of the family.
Since the money earned from frying youtiao was still not enough for the household expenses, her husband persuaded her to stop and go to Pingnan to grow shiitake mushrooms. So Xie Guangrong embarked on the journey of escaping poverty.
Illness strikes one after another, plunging her back into hardship
In March 2005, while Xie Guangrong was busy shuttling between Zhouning and Pingnan, her mother fell ill and became paralyzed.
Xie Guangrong said that at that time the family managed 3 mu of tea garden and 4 mu of land, raised 3 pigs, and during the busy season of growing shiitake mushrooms she also had to go to Pingnan to help. With children and elderly at home to care for, she was busy from 5 in the morning until midnight every day. Neighbors advised her not to push herself so hard, saying it was bad for her health, but she felt that it was nothing for young people to endure some hardship. No matter how hard and tiring, after a night's sleep, she would be fine the next day.
Growing shiitake mushrooms in a different place was inconvenient and did not earn much money. When Xie Guangrong and her husband saw that people in Pingnan grew off-season vegetables and the market was decent, they specifically went to learn vegetable-growing techniques. In 2007, they became the first household in Chiyan Village to specialize in growing vegetables. Unexpectedly, because the cauliflower matured right when heavy rain hit and due to poor sales channels and other factors, the 3 mu of cauliflower they planted lost more than 6,000 yuan. Xie Guangrong did not lose heart. She summed up her experience and persisted in growing off-season vegetables, ultimately achieving success and slightly improving their lives.
In May 2011, Xie Guangrong, still busy every day, found that she was becoming more and more exhausted doing work, sometimes even having difficulty climbing stairs. A hospital examination revealed cirrhosis, which struck Xie Guangrong like a bolt from the blue. They had borrowed money to build a new house in the previous two years, and now they had to borrow money for medical treatment. The family was in dire straits.
Misfortunes never come singly. Not long after Xie Guangrong's surgery, her father had to be hospitalized frequently because of a leg illness. Her mother was paralyzed, and both her father and she herself were ill. Medical expenses flowed like water. Over two or three years, Xie Guangrong accumulated more than 200,000 yuan in debt. Dragging her sick body along, she persisted in labor and raised money everywhere. Speaking of this difficult time, Xie Guangrong's eyes moistened again.
What she still feels guilty about to this day is that once, after finishing work and returning home, she saw that her mother had wet the bed. She quickly changed the bedding, then went on to wash clothes and cook. Before long, her mother wet the bed again, and the exhausted Xie Guangrong could not help but scold her mother. Talking about this, Xie Guangrong regrets it deeply.
Joining the cooperative to escape poverty
Although misfortune always seemed to befall Xie Guangrong, she was never defeated.
In the spring of 2014, the Siqiao Township government took the initiative to help coordinate and provide guarantees, helping Xie Guangrong obtain a loan of 50,000 yuan. The couple, finding a way out of desperation, expanded their vegetable planting scale to 50 mu. That year's income was more than 50,000 yuan, alleviating the family's difficulties.
Agricultural production is deeply affected by weather. In October 2015, a typhoon struck, and dozens of mu of peppers waiting to be harvested were battered into a mess. Xie Guangrong once again fell into hardship. Poverty-alleviation officials at the county, township and village levels visited her home, learned in detail about her family's production and living conditions, discussed ways to escape poverty, and provided 2,000 yuan in poverty-alleviation funds.
In response to Xie Guangrong's family falling into poverty due to illness, in early 2016, Xie Guangrong's family was listed as a registered poor household under targeted assistance, and under the guidance of village officials, they joined the Chiyan Village Vegetable Professional Cooperative.
After joining the cooperative, with the support of policy funds and the technical guidance of agricultural technicians, Xie Guangrong's family income reached 80,000 yuan in 2016, achieving poverty alleviation. Xie Guangrong said with emotion that through the cooperative's standardized management and mutual help among members, their ability to withstand risks was greatly improved.
In May last year, Xie Guangrong and 3 fellow villagers wanted to build a preservation warehouse in the village, but where would the funds come from and how would the site be secured? When village director Zhou Yanyu learned of this, he took the initiative to help her obtain a loan of 72,000 yuan from the township credit union. In September, a 70-square-meter vegetable preservation and cold storage warehouse was completed, capable of storing 500 tons of vegetables.
Talking about the benefits of the preservation warehouse, Xie Guangrong spoke eloquently: "With the preservation warehouse, we can store vegetables until the price is right and then sell them, achieving relatively stable profits. It can also suppress the occurrence of vegetable pests and diseases, minimizing weight loss and pest and disease losses of vegetables." Local vegetable farmer Xie Tiancai chimed in, saying that with the preservation warehouse, Xie Guangrong has become the broker for the village's vegetable farmers, and they are no longer afraid of vegetable vendors driving down prices.
Now, the burden on Xie Guangrong's shoulders is gradually lightening. Two sons are working away from home, and the youngest son is in his senior year of college. In March this year, with the whole family's efforts, an extra floor was added to their house. "The house hasn't been decorated yet. We'll decorate it when we have money later. I believe that day will come soon," Xie Guangrong said.