Yang Kaiwen: "Joining hands" with Brown Plum to "open the door" to prosperity

Villagers bending branches of Brown Plum trees

Recently, nearly 1,000 mu of Brown Plum trees in Shuangqiao Community, Baohua Town, Zhongshan Battle Area of the Liupanshui 216 Open Poverty Alleviation Pilot Zone, have bloomed in unison and entered the fruiting stage, which has delighted plum tree grower Yang Kaiwen and strengthened his confidence and determination to lead the villagers out of poverty toward prosperity and a moderately prosperous life.

Yang Kaiwen left Baohua Town to work elsewhere at the age of 14. In 2013, Yang Kaiwen, who had accumulated considerable wealth, resolutely gave up his thriving career, returned to his hometown to start a company, and began growing fruit trees. Yang Kaiwen, Chairman of Liupanshui Jindi Lvyuan Fruit Industry Development Co., Ltd., said: "Seeing the barren hills lying waste with no one to cultivate them, I planned to use one industry to drive local development, make rational use of land resources, change the local people's traditional planting concepts, promote scientific planting, and also bring the people a path to prosperity, so that the rocky desertification hills can be greened."

After many field investigations, Yang Kaiwen chose to grow Brown Plum as his company's "ace product." Growing fruit trees requires land, but the villagers, whose thinking had not yet changed and who had been hardened by poverty, were unwilling to use their land to participate in the planting, all believing that growing plums was less valuable than growing corn.

Yang Kaiwen did not give up; he wanted to use his own actions to move his fellow villagers. At a price of 400 yuan per mu of land, he rented more than 700 mu of land and began growing plums. In 2016, the Brown Plums Yang Kaiwen planted bore fruit for the first time, and in the first year Yang Kaiwen earned more than 100,000 yuan.

Yang Kaiwen succeeded in growing plum trees, and when the villagers saw the results, they not only came forward one after another to invest their land as shares, but also hoped to work at Yang Kaiwen's company and find employment close to home. Impoverished household An Zhujun has worked at the company for 3 years. Each month he not only receives a salary of more than 2,000 yuan, increasing his income, but also learns techniques through his work and sees hope for prosperity.

This year, nearly 1,000 mu of plum trees have all bloomed and set fruit, and it is expected that after the plums ripen in July, the output will reach about 30 tons. When the plums ripen, they will not only bring economic benefits and increase the villagers' incomes, but also let Yang Kaiwen see hope.