College student village official Wu Yu's peony road to prosperity
Wu Yu graduated in 2014 from Shaanxi Xueqian Normal University with a major in secretarial work. In July of the same year, he was selected and appointed as assistant to the village committee director of Taici Village, Zhangbasi Town, Xunyi County. He currently serves as deputy director of the Taici Village Committee in Zhangbasi Town, Xunyi County, and chairman of the Xunyi Guose Tianxiang Oil Peony Professional Cooperative. In 2015, he participated in the demonstration training class for rural practical talent leaders and college student village officials organized by the Central Organization Department and the Ministry of Agriculture, and was awarded "Outstanding Trainee." In September 2016, he was elected as a representative to the 17th Congress of the Communist Party of China in Xunyi County.
Only by bearing weight does one know hardship, and hardship hastens maturity. Since taking office, he has persisted in learning from the masses and from rural Party members and cadres, gradually transforming from a callow "student kid" into an expert at leading the masses to prosperity through industry.
The photo shows Wu Yu (second from right) receiving the "Outstanding Trainee" award at the award ceremony.
Strengthening his own qualities and improving his service skills
When Wu Yu first took up his post in the village, he had to learn everything from scratch and start from the beginning. The education and training organized by the county and town, as well as the paired assistance activities, effectively improved his work ability and professional quality. He persisted in self-studying modern science and technology, professional skills, agriculture-related laws and regulations, and other knowledge. He was especially persistent with agricultural science and technology programs closely related to industrial development. He took the initiative to serve as the village's publicity officer, information officer, and organizer, earnestly studying and understanding various agricultural benefit policies, conducting in-depth surveys and visits in farmers' homes, helping the village "two committees" sort out and improve relevant archives and materials, handling relevant village affairs, and focusing on constantly summarizing, improving, and enhancing himself in practice, becoming a veritable advisor and assistant to town and village cadres.
At the same time, he used out-of-town training and study opportunities to actively exchange experience with role models among village officials inside and outside the province. In 2015, he participated in the entrepreneurship demonstration training class for rural practical talent leaders and college student village officials with the theme of "Farmers' Cooperatives," held by the Central Organization Department and the Ministry of Agriculture at the Donghan Base in Huxian County, Shaanxi Province, and was awarded "Outstanding Trainee" and "Outstanding Group Leader."
The gradual improvement of his overall quality enabled him to find the "golden key" to rural work.
The photo shows Wu Yu being interviewed by the county TV station after being elected as a representative to the 17th Party Congress of Xunyi County.
Conducting in-depth investigation and research, classifying and implementing precise measures
Taici Village, where Wu Yu serves, has 3 villager groups, 252 households and 1,068 people, with 1,699 mu of cultivated land, of which 1,100 mu is apple orchards. Characteristic industries and the service sector are almost nonexistent. Through visits, he identified the problems in the industrial development of the village where he serves. First, although apples are the leading industry with large scale and good quality, traditional "relying on heaven for food" farming methods still dominate, and the ability to prevent and resist disasters is relatively poor; the masses are conservative in thinking, the marketing model is, and sales channels are relatively narrow; there is a lack of deep processing, and the added value of the apple industry is low. These problems have greatly limited the village's economic development and the masses' efforts to increase income and achieve prosperity.
To this end, Wu Yu, based on the actual conditions of the village, targeted his efforts precisely and actively used the Party member distance education platform to carry out publicity on new farming techniques; invited professional and technical personnel to hold 6 training sessions on apple and walnut pruning, fertilization, planting, and related topics, training more than 300 people; guided the masses to scientifically manage orchards, promoted the planting of new dwarf varieties, and sought prosperity from the county Youth League Committee and Science and Technology Bureauentrepreneurship projectssupport; innovated apple marketing methods by putting characters on apples and using e-commerce and other online media to broaden apple sales channels.
Breaking development bottlenecks and extending the industrial chain
Facing the reality that the apple industry in the village where he serves is large but not strong, Wu Yu pondered how to find a new prosperity project for the masses. To this end, he made a special trip to visit his university teacher and learned that oil peony is suitable for promotion in Xunyi and has broad market prospects, which sparked Wu Yu's interest. In order to fully understand the emerging woody oil industry - oil peony - he actively searched and studied through the internet and media. During the 2015 National Day holiday, Wu Yu sacrificed his holiday and traveled at his own expense to Heze in Shandong, Luoyang in Henan, Shangluo and Weinan in Shaanxi, and other places for investigation and study. Through the investigation, he believed that oil peony had promising development prospects. To be prudent, he joined with 5 college student village officials to establish the "Xunyi Guose Tianxiang Oil Peony Professional Cooperative" and at his own expense set up a 5-mu oil peony experimental field, planting and introducing more than 3,000 Fengdan seedlings of 2-4 years from Heze, and experimentally growing more than 30,000 seedlings.
The photo shows Wu Yu planting oil peonies together with the masses.
Do it for the masses to see, lead the masses to do it
Upon learning that this "kid director" had some ideas, some of the masses were also eager to try. This work also received encouragement and strong support from the main town leaders, who incorporated oil peony into the town's characteristic industry and economic planning, and sought project funds from the county Forestry Bureau, Science and Technology Bureau, and Poverty Alleviation Office to provide seedling subsidies to the masses planting oil peonies.
At the same time, Wu Yu also actively contacted the village-based assistance unit, the Xianyang Municipal Transportation Management Office, and received strong support from the municipal transportation management office, which promised to subsidize planting households 200-300 yuan per mu. In order to build a strong brand for the oil peony industry and bring greater economic benefits to the masses through the oil peony industry, in October 2015, Wu Yu registered and established the "Guose Tianxiang Oil Peony Professional Cooperative," absorbing households to participate. At the same time, he combined the promotion of oil peony with targeted poverty alleviation, produced PPTs on oil peony planting techniques and daily management knowledge, distributed promotional color pages door to door, organized viewings of relevant videos and news reports, and held 5 training sessions on oil peony cultivation and management techniques, training more than 220 people.