Saffron cultivation pioneers a first for Jiangxi: Zhang Danying helps impoverished farmers onto the road to prosperity
Zhang Danying succeeds in trial cultivation of saffron.
"I am a farmer's child, and also a rural Party member. I was born in the countryside and grew up in the countryside. I want the land of my hometown to grow gold, and to lead the villagers to prosperity..." Zhang Danying, women's director of Jiangbei Village, Yangxi Township, Yujiang County, said confidently, pointing to the lush green rice fields on both sides of the road. These more than 1000 mu of rice fields were all transferred from the villagers, and the villagers fertilizing in the fields were also hired by her from nearby.
In the eyes of the local villagers, this petite woman actually holds great energy within. She takes the lead in getting rich and leads the masses to get rich, vividly interpreting that one Party member is one banner. The demonstration and leading role of rural Party members skilled in getting rich in the battle against poverty is immeasurable.
Always thinking of the disadvantaged people who need help
Zhang Danying is a native of Jiangbei, Yangxi Township, Yujiang County. After ten years of hard work, starting from nothing, she set up a garment processing factory in Jinjiang City, Fujian Province. Success in a foreign land did not hold Zhang Danying's heart; returning home to start a business became her firm choice. She took out all her savings of nearly 20 years and registered and established the Yujiang County Xingchang Poultry Farm and the Yujiang County Xingchang Rice Planting Family Farm.
Because she had been poor, Zhang Danying, who now lives a good life, has never forgotten the villagers who once helped her, and she always thinks of the disadvantaged people who need help. In the 2011 village committee election, Zhang Danying was elected by the villagers as women's director of Jiangbei Village, Yangxi Township. Facing the villagers' trust, she set a goal for herself: not only to be a good village cadre, but also to achieve something in starting a business and enriching the people.
In 2013, she led the villagers to establish a rice planting professional cooperative, and successively signed land transfer and lease contracts with 456 farmer households in the three villages of Yangxi, Huangxi and Wuqiao for 1225 mu of land and 500 mu of barren hills, solving the employment problem of more than 150 villagers, increasing each person's monthly income by more than 1500 yuan, and driving the surrounding villagers onto the road to prosperity.
She pioneers saffron cultivation in Jiangxi
In 2014, Zhang Danying pioneered saffron cultivation in Jiangxi, using land during the slack farming period to plant 20 mu of saffron, and this single item alone brought a profit of more than 200,000 yuan. After the trial cultivation of saffron succeeded, faced with villagers who came one after another to seek advice on cultivation techniques, she always taught them the techniques without reservation, provided seedlings, and had technicians guide them in planting. She also compiled the key technical points into a booklet and distributed it free to the villagers. At the same time, by absorbing poor households as shareholders and providing employment, she helped 30 poor households increase their income and become prosperous.
"National Women's Modern Agricultural Science and Technology Prosperity Leader", "National March 8th Red Banner Pacesetter", "Yingtan City Rural Science and Technology Prosperity Female Expert"... With her own indomitable perseverance and drive, Zhang Danying has become a widely known capable woman. Next, she plans to invest 5 million yuan to build a sightseeing green farm integrating ecological agriculture with tourism and leisure. After the project is operational, it will drive more than 100 surrounding villagers into employment.
Party members skilled in getting rich lead poor households to prosperity
Not forgetting her hometown while getting rich. Zhang Danying has donated many times for road construction in her hometown, and last year alone she donated more than 110,000 yuan to build village roads. Seeing rural women spending all day around mahjong during the slack farming season, she organized and established a "Women's Dance Team", paid out of her own pocket for audio equipment and other apparatus, and invited a dance teacher from the county to teach, enriching the spare-time cultural life of rural women. Now, she has also transformed into a "caring mother", founding the Yujiang County Fuchang Children's Happy Home, building a "new nest" for 49 surrounding poor children and providing free food, accommodation, study and play areas.
"Only when the villagers are prosperous can I feel at ease, and I will not have failed the trust the whole village placed in me and the cultivation the village Party branch gave me." This is a sentence Zhang Danying often says. It is precisely because of the demonstration and guidance of Party members like Zhang Danying that today's Jiangbei Village has simple folk customs, a harmonious village atmosphere and happy villagers.