How Tian Xianfeng, a skilled vegetable grower, became a leader in prosperity
Thirteen years ago, Tian Xianfeng, a villager from Dazhou Village, Shihe Town, Qiaocheng District, was among the first in the village to "eat the crab" by growing greenhouse vegetables; today, having grown prosperous, he has been elected by the villagers as a village cadre and has become a leader in their pursuit of prosperity. "The traditional planting model no longer works. If you want good returns, you must increase the technical content," Tian Xianfeng said. Dazhou Village also possesses a unique tourism advantage, and they plan to combine planting with tourism so that the villagers can earn even greater returns.
Tian Xianfeng is picking bitter melons in the greenhouse; this one and a half mu of bitter melons will bring him about 30,000 yuan in returns
Vegetable greenhouses become the villagers' "treasure bowl"
On the morning of March 19, in Dazhou Village, Shihe Town, Qiaocheng District, villager Tian Xianfeng was carefully placing bitter melons one by one into a picking basket in the greenhouse. After the cucumbers were pulled up, the bitter melons began to "take over" and became the "main attraction" in the greenhouse. It is said that these bitter melons will be sold to surrounding areas at a price of more than two yuan per jin.
"When the bitter melon market is good, one jin can sell for about three or four yuan," Tian Xianfeng said. Because the weather has not been very good, the bitter melon market has been poor these past few days. Even so, the bitter melons from this one greenhouse should sell for twenty or thirty thousand yuan. Add the forty thousand yuan from the earlier cucumber sales, and this one greenhouse's annual income reaches sixty or seventy thousand yuan.
This is not the highest income. Last year, some villagers earned about more than ninety thousand yuan from one greenhouse, and even the poorer ones could earn more than forty thousand yuan. This greenhouse of theirs covers about 4 mu; after deducting the walls and other facilities, the actual planting area is only one and a half mu.
It is said that Dazhou Village now has a total of 38 temperature-controlled greenhouses, as well as hundreds of sunlight greenhouses. The five varieties produced - cucumber, tomato, bitter melon, chili pepper and potato - have successively passed the Ministry of Agriculture's pollution-free agricultural product certification.
Scientific planting brings good returns
In terms of greenhouse vegetable planting, Tian Xianfeng was among the first in the village to "eat the crab." In 2004, led by village cadres, several households of villagers went elsewhere to learn greenhouse vegetable planting experience, preparing to grow some off-season vegetables in the village.
"Because I have elders above me and children below me, I couldn't leave to work elsewhere, and growing traditional crops brought no great returns. At the time, I also thought growing greenhouse vegetables was quite good," Tian Xianfeng said. That year he invested 50,000 yuan and built a total of 3 facilities - temperature-controlled greenhouses and sunlight greenhouses - planting tomatoes, yardlong beans, cucumbers and other vegetables.
Because they had no greenhouse planting experience, they also brought in a professional from elsewhere to provide guidance. However, the first year's returns were not good.
"Although someone was guiding us, we didn't understand it ourselves and had no confidence. As soon as we saw bugs, we rushed to spray pesticide, and as a result many vegetables were not eaten by bugs but ruined by our pesticide spraying," Tian Xianfeng said. After the lesson of the first year, they kept going elsewhere to learn, mastered more and more planting skills, and the quality of the vegetables became better and better.
In 2010, under the guidance of experts, Tian Xianfeng and the others introduced straw reactor technology into greenhouse planting. "It means crushing corn stalks, burying them underground, using them as fertilizer and also releasing carbon dioxide to meet the needs of the vegetables," Tian Xianfeng said. The vegetables no longer needed pesticide spraying or chemical fertilizer, and the yield also increased noticeably. More importantly, the quality of the vegetables also became better.
Relying on tourism resources to do a good job of the prosperity story
When they first started planting, Tian Xianfeng had to go out to work the market when the vegetables were ready for sale. Now, sellers from various places come to them on their own initiative. Dazhou Village's vegetables are sold to Fuyang, Zhoukou, Hefei and even Wuhan. Their village has also become a well-known moderately prosperous village far and wide.
Counting on his fingers, from when he began trying to grow greenhouse vegetables at age 27, Tian Xianfeng has now been growing them for 13 years. Elected by the villagers, he has now also become a village cadre of Dazhou Village. "If we farmers still use that traditional planting model, it definitely won't work; we must increase the technical content of the crops we grow," Tian Xianfeng said. After gradually becoming prosperous, several households of villagers also established the Tianyi Vegetable Professional Cooperative, attracting farming households to join and raising their income from a per capita five thousand yuan to more than twenty thousand yuan. Their cooperative has also successively received honorary titles such as "Ministry of Agriculture Demonstration Cooperative," "Provincial-Level Demonstration Cooperative" and "China Top 50 Cooperative."
Today, Dazhou Village has also become a tourist destination. Relying on this advantage, Tian Xianfeng and the others have also launched vegetable and fruit picking activities, letting tourists experience farm life while also fattening the villagers' wallets. "My becoming rich alone doesn't count as being rich; only when everyone becomes rich together is it truly rich," Tian Xianfeng said.