Chen Dezhong made his fortune growing vegetables, and he also led his fellow villagers to increase their incomes together

Nowadays, in Xinhe County, whenever people mention Kalatashi Village in Yiqi'airike Town, everyone knows it is a vegetable-growing village. Walking into the village, greenhouses are arranged in neat rows, and small arched sheds are closely connected to one another.

"We all learned vegetable-growing techniques from Chen Dezhong." On March 25, when the author visited the village for an interview, the Uyghur villagers who grow vegetables said this.

Teaching villagers to grow greenhouse vegetables

"Chen Dezhong is my teacher. Both my son and I learned our vegetable-growing skills from him." said 73-year-old villager Mahmut Kurban.

Mahmut has been growing vegetables in greenhouses for more than ten years. Now he has 4 greenhouses and 6 small arched sheds, with an annual income of more than 60,000 yuan.

"In order to learn greenhouse cultivation, I even studied Chinese for a long time. Now I can understand quite a few professional Chinese terms." Mahmut said. More than ten years ago, many people in the village became rich by growing greenhouse vegetables. Mahmut discussed with his son that they should also learn greenhouse cultivation techniques from Chen Dezhong, but his family laughed at him, saying he did not even understand a single sentence of Chinese, so how could he learn?

This made Mahmut very angry, so he made a special trip to the county seat to buy Chinese books and tapes, and studied at home.

Mahmut told the author that now whenever he encounters a problem, he still often goes to Chen Dezhong's home, who is 10 years younger than him, to ask for advice on cultivation techniques.

The first person in Kalatashi Village to learn greenhouse cultivation from Chen Dezhong was Reheman Tulafu. During the Spring Festival 20 years ago, when he saw that Chen Dezhong's green peppers were selling on the street for 8 yuan per kilogram, he immediately decided to learn the craft from Chen Dezhong.

"At that time, I first began teaching some villagers to learn greenhouse cultivation techniques. Later, when we saw that growing vegetables was becoming more and more profitable, more villagers came to me to learn. Some even directly built greenhouses and then came to me to transplant seedlings and plant them." Chen Dezhong said. At the time when the village had the most greenhouses, there were more than 500 greenhouses, more than 1,000 large arched sheds, and an area of more than 1,000 mu.

"Now our village not only supplies vegetables to the county seat, but is also responsible for providing vegetable seedlings to various villages. The whole village currently has 282 greenhouses and more than 1,000 large and small arched sheds in total." said Rehemaiti Maihemuti, secretary of the village Party branch, who is also a student of Chen Dezhong.

Helping villagers get rich together

Chen Dezhong grew up in Kalatashi Village since childhood, but because he had no skills, he had no other way to get rich in the village besides farming. In 1989, in order to solve the problem of people having difficulty eating vegetables, Xinhe County opened a vegetable-growing training class. Chen Dezhong, with the attitude of giving it a try, went to listen to one class, and as a result this industry, which required little investment and brought large returns, immediately attracted him.

In the spring of the following year, holding a roll of plastic film, he converted his good wheat field into a greenhouse and planted Chinese cabbage in the spring.

"Chinese cabbage is all planted in mid-June. How could anyone plant it at the beginning of the year?" Amid his family's doubts, in May Chen Dezhong put fresh Chinese cabbages one by one on the streets of Xinhe County seat, thereby enriching the local variety of vegetables.

After three or four years of exploration, after Chen Dezhong's greenhouse vegetable cultivation techniques matured, he began large-scale cultivation in 8 greenhouses and 50 arched sheds.

"At that time he made a lot of money and even bought a Santana car. Everyone was shocked. Every day many people went to him wanting to learn techniques from him, saying they were going to help him work, but in the end they trampled the soil in his greenhouse firm. He was not annoyed and patiently explained things to everyone." said Taxiba Tuxi, an old Party member in the village. Later, whenever anyone encountered a difficult problem in cultivation, he would go to their home to "diagnose" it.

"Our village has more than 1,000 people and more than 3,000 mu of land. It belongs to the villages with little land in the whole county, but the villagers have all become rich in recent years. Seven or eight years ago, many villagers already had annual incomes of tens of thousands of yuan. At that time, our village bought the most cars in the county, and our village also had the most active economy. Everyone thanks Chen Dezhong. Every Spring Festival, we Uyghur villagers go in waves to wish him a happy New Year." Taxiba said.

Leading villagers to adapt to the market

However, as the economic environment changed, greenhouse vegetables in Kalatashi Village also experienced a situation where supply exceeded demand.

Vegetable grower Aihaiti Shali said that when three or four hundred people in the county seat sell vegetables, vegetable prices are still acceptable, but when more than a thousand people flood in to sell vegetables, vegetable prices plummet. This is especially obvious in some years when everyone grows the same vegetable varieties. One winter, celery was as cheap as one yuan per kilogram and tomatoes were five mao per kilogram. Many people lost so much that they could not even recover their capital.

"At this time, it was still Chen Dezhong who led us out of the predicament. He said that vegetable growing must be flexible and that we must have the mindset of changing with the market. Now, we villagers have all changed our thinking." Mahmut said. Everyone not only learned how to grow vegetables, but also learned how to gather information about vegetable growing.

"We go to Aksu City and Kuqa County to see what others are planting. Whatever they plant, we do not plant; whatever they do not plant, we plant." Mahmut said. This year the cucumbers he planted have already reached the market. Each greenhouse easily brings in 10,000 yuan, and by May he can complete the income target of 60,000 yuan.

"Now, most people in our village have started selling vegetable seedlings, because many villages in the county have begun growing vegetables in small arched sheds, and the demand for vegetable seedlings is very large. Now we make more money selling vegetable seedlings than selling vegetables." Rehemaiti said.