Lotus Root Farming Helps Shan Junjie of Shenqiu County, Henan Realize His Dream of Prosperity
When people work hard, spring comes early; when spring comes, people work even harder. Just after the Spring Festival, Nanguozhuang Village in Bianlukou Township, Shenqiu County, was bustling with activity. At villager Shan Junjie's lotus root planting base, more than a dozen laborers were bent over in the lotus ponds, busy at work, and the freshly dug lotus roots were piled up like a "small mountain" on the bank.
"Lotus roots still see a small peak after the New Year, and some customers placed orders in advance. Right now the overall lotus root market is poor, but my lotus roots have a group of regular customers 'covering' them, so I'm not worried about selling them." On February 14, Shan Junjie said to reporters with a smile while packing boxes and loading them onto a truck.
In the same trade, profits differ. Last year, lotus root prices fell, and some growers lost money, yet Shan Junjie's total profit rose against the market, achieving sales of 1.56 million yuan. He joked that he had two "magic weapons": first, cooperating with large enterprises on deep processing; second, providing villagers with technology and selling lotus root seeds. Calling them "magic weapons" aside, they were really his good products and the good reputation he had built up. Relying on lotus root farming, this young man born in the 1980s not only became rich himself in just a few years but also helped villagers escape poverty.
Before 2012, Shan Junjie had gone out to sell insurance, set up a street stall, and sell medical equipment... After several years of struggling without making money, he returned to the village. "Villagers are used to rotating wheat and corn, and in a good year they get about 1,000 yuan per mu. In a disaster year, they work hard and still lose money. My family all loves eating lotus root, and the county also had support policies, so I thought I'd try planting some." Shan Junjie said.
A single lotus pond requires a one-time investment of more than 8,000 yuan. What if he lost money? In the first year, Shan Junjie took out only his family's one mu and two fen of land to "practice on", and from digging ponds and laying film to introducing seeds and cultivating them, Shan Junjie learned while doing, taking every step cautiously.
That year, he dug 9 ponds and produced more than 9,000 jin of lotus root, each one white and plump, crisp and refreshing to eat. It also happened to hit a good market, selling for 4 yuan per jin at market price, and after deducting costs he made a net profit of more than 26,000 yuan. This return made villagers who planted ordinary crops envious, and some began to follow Shan Junjie in digging lotus ponds and learning the techniques, and Nanguozhuang's lotus root planting area expanded to 50 mu.
In 2014, Shan Junjie led the establishment of the Junmin Lotus Root Planting Professional Cooperative, leading villagers to expand lotus root planting together and successively introducing varieties such as Snow Lotus, Elian No. 5 and Mopan Lotus.
"Stocking loach and rice field eels in the lotus ponds: the loach loosens the soil, the rice field eels eat the plankton in the pond, and the droppings of the loach and rice field eels become fertilizer, while also promoting the balance of the pond water's ecological environment." After returning from studying elsewhere, Shan Junjie proposed a three-dimensional mixed-culture model to the villagers and taught them the key technical points. That year, the average comprehensive return per mu of lotus pond reached 25,000 yuan. With the coordination of the village committee, the transferred land expanded to 200 mu.
At the end of 2016, Nanguozhuang successfully applied to become a pilot village for the village collective economy, and the village collective put up part of the support funds to invest in the cooperative. At the same time, with the help of the township government, Shan Junjie applied for a 500,000 yuan poverty-alleviation subsidized loan. The injection of these two sums of funds opened up for Nanguozhuang a production model of "collective economy + cooperative + specialty planting and breeding", further expanding the economic scale and further increasing the number of employed people. At the peak, 130 person-times were hired in a single day, with daily wages paid of more than 5,000 yuan, driving 28 poor households into employment at their doorstep.
"The market changes constantly, and walking on one leg is unsteady. This year, the cooperative will continue to expand the mixed-culture scale of lotus root, rice field eel and loach, and on the other hand expand the intercropping scale of cash crops such as black-skinned hanging winter melon, garlic, onion and watermelon, and continuously improve this 'mixed' model to lead more villagers to prosperity. Next, we plan to naturally combine lotus root picking, field fishing and agritainment to attract nearby tourists to come pick and play, and develop Nanguozhuang into a truly green economic and ecological village." Speaking of the future, Shan Junjie was full of ambition.