Gong Shirong Turns Small Grapes into a Fruit of Wealth
"Right now our grapes can sell for as much as 120 yuan per jin, an average of 4 yuan per grape." Speaking of his grapes, 27-year-old Gong Shirong, owner of the Yuluan Specialty Grape Estate in Luanchuan County, Henan Province, and a model representative of the county's new-type professional farmers, was full of confidence.
In 2013, Gong Shirong, a graduate in horticulture, gave up a stable job in Dalian and returned to his hometown of Yantai Village, Heyu Town, Luanchuan County, Luoyang City, Henan Province, where he registered a sole proprietorship - the Luanchuan Yuluan Specialty Grape Estate - focused on producing and operating high-end table grapes and developing a modern agritourism industry.
For convenient transportation, Gong Shirong chose a plot of more than 30 mu of land north of Yantai Village in Luanchuan, near National Highway 311, for his vineyard. How to persuade more than 50 farming households to transfer their land became the first challenge before him. "My father and I went door to door explaining the plan, describing our ideals, and laying out the blueprint, hoping to win the villagers' trust through practical action." Gong Shirong's sincerity ultimately moved the farmers, and quite a few were even willing to work at his estate.
After the land issue was resolved, Gong Shirong encountered an even thornier problem - after the grape seedlings were introduced to Luanchuan, they failed to adapt to the local conditions and could not flower or bear fruit. To find out why, he recorded the grapes' growth day and night, and compiled and analyzed changes in Luanchuan County's temperature, sunlight, moisture and other climatic conditions over the years, eventually developing a management plan that included improving cultivation models, changing trellis types and amending the soil - and this problem too was solved.
Leveling beds, planting seedlings, pruning and pinching off shoots - nearly ten thousand bends of the waist every day and more than 10 hours of field work... Gong Shirong's hands blistered with blood, and when the blisters burst, calluses formed.
Hard work pays off. Today, the Luanchuan Yuluan Specialty Grape Estate has become the most beautiful and most substantial rural eco-tourism estate along National Highway 311 in Yantai Village.
In April 2014, Heyu Town selected outstanding individuals, and Gong Shirong was named a "Technical Pace-setter"; in August, the Luanchuan Yuluan Specialty Grape Estate was named a "National Agricultural Technology Extension Science and Technology Demonstration Household." That same year, Gong Shirong's 4-mu vineyard earned a total income of more than 70,000 yuan, breaking the traditional grape industry's baseline profit per unit area.
"Once you've gained a foothold, you have to think about how to make the business bigger and stronger," Gong Shirong said.
In 2016, at the "Tonghe Cup" First Luoyang Youth Agriculture-Related Entrepreneurship Competition held by the Luoyang Municipal Committee of the Communist Youth League and other units, Gong Shirong won third prize and the opportunity for entrepreneurship training. Through the training, he became even more determined to pursue entrepreneurship and clarified the direction for the vineyard's development.
"For the next 20 years I will only produce table grapes, attracting customers with high-quality single products and building a premium brand." From the very beginning of his business, Gong Shirong has always insisted on the principle of producing only the highest-quality products, with quality above all.
Through scientific innovation, the Yuluan Specialty Grape Estate has maintained the harmony and unity of its ecosystem. The ecological model of growing grass in the vineyard and raising chickens under the trees not only makes effective use of spatial resources but also reduces the use of pesticides, chemical fertilizers and other adverse factors, greatly improving product quality.
"I hope that through my professional expertise and capital chain, I can help impoverished people in Luanchuan County launch projects, so that they can lift themselves out of poverty through dignified entrepreneurship." This was the original intention of Gong Shirong, an impoverished young man, in returning home to start a business.
In 2015, with the support of the local government and through the strategic approach of "supporting aspirations before supporting the poor," helping farmers who had the desire to develop but lacked project plans to establish projects, and helping farmers who lacked funds to become equity partners, Gong Shirong successfully helped more than 60 households in Yantai Village, Heyu Town - including 40 impoverished households - launch projects and escape poverty through industry. In the end, with the Luanchuan Yuluan Specialty Grape Estate as the leader, he helped participating farmers develop a modern demonstration orchard and leisure farm integrating organic grape eco-tourism picking, research, testing and promotion of new agricultural scientific cultivation techniques, three-dimensional planting and breeding, leisure and entertainment, dining and tourism, and team-building training.
After attending the training organized by the Luoyang Municipal Committee of the Communist Youth League, Gong Shirong also drew up a "three-year plan" for the vineyard's development, planning to successfully build 4 grape industry demonstration parks by the end of 2019, with an expected total cultivation area of 150 mu, and by 2021 to achieve an annual income of 7 million yuan and a net profit of 4 million yuan, lifting 400 impoverished households out of poverty and increasing their annual income by 19,000 yuan.
At present, specialty tourism agriculture in the county is still in its infancy. The Yuluan Specialty Grape Estate has taken the lead in trying out and summarizing a development model of "leading enterprise + university scientific and technological achievement sharing platform + science and technology demonstration park + cooperative + farmers," combining local customs and conditions to promote the healthy and sustainable development of the county's specialty agriculture industry.