Li Dong Uses Both Hands to Hold Up His Dream of Starting a Business and Getting Rich
Li Dong, a villager from Group 2 of Lianwen Village, Banchang Town, Yanhe Autonomous County, has in recent years relied on his own hard work and practical effort to move from livestock farming to crop cultivation, opening up a path to prosperity in the countryside and realizing his dream of starting a business. This year he was also named one of the county's "Top Ten Entrepreneurial Youths."
After graduating from junior high school in 2006, Li Dong went out to work and managed to save up several tens of thousands of yuan. But he knew that working for others was not the path to his life's ideals.
In 2010 he returned home and opened a small shop selling wires, switches and similar materials, and took on some electrical appliance installation work for hotels and private homes. Over the course of a year, because customers owed him for materials, his funds could not be turned over. Although he did not lose money, he did not make any either. He thought that if he kept dragging on like this, not only would he fail to make money, but he would also waste time.
After repeated consideration and learning about the surrounding market, he learned that the price of ginger was currently considerable, selling for more than 10 yuan per kilogram, so he decided to develop a ginger industry in his village.
Li Dong (right)
In order to coordinate land smoothly during development, he discussed with the village Party branch and village committee cadres his idea of planting ginger. The village cadres were delighted to hear it and encouraged him to take the lead in crop cultivation, with the village taking responsibility for helping him coordinate and resolve the land issue.
Village committee member Ran Qigang said, our village has a large area of poverty and many poor people. When young people have the idea of starting a business, the village will give strong support. Through young people's entrepreneurship, everyone can be led to prosperity together.
Action followed words. In 2014, Li Dong leased 10 mu of land from local villagers at a rental fee of 300 yuan per mu to plant ginger. That year's harvest was good, with a profit of more than 20,000 yuan.
Li Dong got a taste of success from planting ginger in his first year. Starting last year he expanded the scale of planting, investing 180,000 yuan and planting more than 100 mu, which yielded a bumper harvest, and he was secretly delighted.
What he never expected was that not long after the ginger reached the market, the market price plummeted. Large quantities of ginger could not be sold and were about to spoil. In order to minimize his losses, he asked villagers to dig cellars in the village to store the ginger. After some time, because rain seeped into the cellars, most of the ginger was damaged, resulting in a loss of nearly 100,000 yuan.
"Planting ginger is inherently a profitable industry, but because my economic strength was not strong enough and my storage technology could not keep up, it led to losses. But I will not give up and will continue planting. Starting a business is never smooth sailing. Only by aiming toward the goal you have set for yourself, constantly working hard and summing up experience, can you shine and make money on the entrepreneurial path!" Li Dong said. In ginger planting, although Li Dong lost money, the local people actually benefited, because the base's workers received wage income.
Li Chengwu, a villager in his 70s from the village, said that before Li Dong planted ginger, every year he just looked after his grandchildren at home or planted a few vegetables around the house, with no economic income at all. Now he works every day at the ginger base, earning 80 yuan per day, which adds up to several thousand yuan a year and covers the family's pocket money.
In order to strengthen his own industry, that year Li Dong also registered the "Yanhe Tujia Autonomous County Donglian Planting and Breeding Farmers' Professional Cooperative," with the aim of letting more young people join as shareholders and develop together.
Now that he has the cooperative, he is even more confident in developing his industry. Last year he not only planted ginger but also raised more than 5,000 chickens of different breeds. When talking about breeding, he speaks without stopping. Because he believes that compared with planting ginger, raising chickens is a more reliable way to make money.
This year, the ginger he planted encountered drought, and the harvest was very small. Breeding was just the opposite: chickens and eggs sold very well. He said: "If I hadn't raised chickens this year and relied only on planting ginger, life would be very difficult!" He invested more than 200,000 yuan to build a chicken farm and buy chicks, raising a total of 8,600 free-range chickens and guinea fowl. Among them were 5,600 free-range chickens, 2,000 guinea fowl and 1,000 silkie chickens. Up to now, he has sold more than 400,000 yuan worth of eggs and chickens. It is expected that this year's annual output value can reach more than 1 million yuan.
Starting a business is difficult, and maintaining it is even harder. To ensure that both breeding and planting are profitable, he rises early and works late every day, eating and sleeping in a temporary work shed beside the chicken farm, tending and watching over the chickens on one hand while reading books on breeding techniques on the other, so as to master more breeding skills.
"Only by mastering breeding techniques can breeding succeed. As long as I keep going, I will surely realize my value and dreams on the path of breeding and planting!" Li Dong said.