Ma Qiusheng Becomes a Leader in Prosperity Through Growing Greenhouse Vegetables

Ma Qiusheng is the Party branch secretary of Majizhuang Village in Binhe Subdistrict. In recent years, he has led the whole village in vigorously developing the vegetable industry, and he is affectionately called by the people "a leader in prosperity through growing greenhouse vegetables."

Majizhuang Village is located 10 kilometers northeast of the city and is a specialized vegetable-growing village mainly engaged in vegetable cultivation. Previously, Majizhuang Village mainly grew wheat and corn, with extremely low returns; the income per mu was less than 1,000 yuan, and the villagers lived in hardship. In 2016, in order to improve agricultural production efficiency and increase farmers' income, Ma Qiusheng actively invited professional technicians to guide the village on how to grow greenhouse vegetables. However, because the villagers of Majizhuang Village had never previously benefited from growing greenhouse vegetables, after three or four days of publicity and mobilization in the village, not a single person was willing to grow greenhouse vegetables. For this reason, under the guidance of professional technicians, Ma Qiusheng took the lead in building 2 greenhouses in his own vegetable plot and planted fine vegetables such as tomatoes and peppers. From just one crop of early-spring vegetables, he earned more than 6,000 yuan.

This first success not only let Ma Qiusheng taste the sweetness of growing greenhouse vegetables, but also strengthened his confidence in vigorously developing greenhouse vegetables. He decided to further expand the planting scale and successively built three new greenhouses, mainly planting tomatoes, peppers, and other crops, and adopted a planting model of greenhouse seedling cultivation with two crops planted per year, with annual income reaching 150,000 yuan.

The power of example is infinite. After the villagers saw that Ma Qiusheng had become prosperous by growing greenhouse vegetables, they all came one after another asking to grow greenhouse vegetables. He taught all the techniques to the villagers without reservation. At present, the village's total vegetable planting area has reached 100 mu, the annual total output value has reached 2 million yuan, and the per capita income from greenhouse vegetables alone has reached 4,000 yuan. Gradually, greenhouse vegetable production has become the main way for the farmers of Majizhuang to escape poverty and become prosperous.

While doing a good job in greenhouse production, Ma Qiusheng also introduced various new vegetable varieties to seek suitable variety resources for the village's vegetable production. Over the past few years, he has successively introduced new and superior varieties such as strawberries and melons, laying a good foundation for the development of the village's vegetable industry.

In order to further open up the market for vegetables sold outside the area, enable the greenhouse vegetables grown by the whole village to sell at a good price, and improve the economic benefits for the broad masses of vegetable farmers in growing greenhouse vegetables, Ma Qiusheng, with the help of the district agricultural department, established the Majizhuang Vegetable Association, responsible for the unified sale of the village's vegetable products. During the production and sales season, he and the village committee and the vegetable association went to surrounding counties and cities to learn techniques, explore markets, and promote sales. After several years of effort, the reputation of Majizhuang Village's greenhouse vegetables has become well known in the surrounding counties and cities. When the vegetables are on the market, merchants come to the village in an endless stream to transport and sell vegetables, which not only makes the village's vegetables sell well within and outside the district, but also drives the export sales of vegetable products from surrounding villages.

After becoming prosperous by growing greenhouse vegetables, Ma Qiusheng always kept in mind the poor households in the village. While buying books on greenhouse vegetable cultivation for the needy households, he also helped them build vegetable greenhouses. During the vegetable production season, while doing a good job in the production of his own greenhouses, he also actively assisted poor households in production management, helping them escape poverty and become prosperous by developing the greenhouse vegetable industry.

Today, under his leadership, Majizhuang has become a well-known specialized village for greenhouse vegetable cultivation throughout the district, and the common people's lives are becoming more and more prosperous.