Flower cultivation opens a new path to prosperity through returning-home entrepreneurship

Rose picking.

"A young man growing roses is quite a novelty around here!" In Shenglong Village, Sansu Township, Dongpo District, college graduate Yu Mingjie returned home to start a rose-growing business, and word quickly spread through the local area.

This post-80s entrepreneur, 30 years old this year, recently led his team back from the 9th China Bamboo Culture Festival with honors. "This fills me with confidence. I will strive to achieve agricultural industrialization of edible roses and build a distinctive modern agricultural project that integrates rose seedling breeding and cultivation, rose production, processing and sales, and rose garden sightseeing tourism," said Yu Mingjie.

Over more than a year of entrepreneurship, the difficulties others described and those he had imagined all arrived one by one, right on schedule. Yu Mingjie said that although he entered entrepreneurship midway, he would not doubt or deny himself because of it, nor would he allow himself to give up halfway.

Innovation and Entrepreneurship

The stage for rural entrepreneurship is vast

Yu Mingjie graduated from Wuhan Bioengineering Institute, majoring in biotechnology. He successively worked in quality inspection and sales at a Chengdu import-export food company, and in hybrid rice breeding at a Hainan seed company.

In recent years, every time Yu Mingjie came home, he could feel the changes taking place in his hometown, especially in rural areas. The state's support for agriculture has increased year by year, letting ordinary people taste the benefits. "My family contracts several hundred mu of land, and we can get tens of thousands of yuan in subsidies every year. When natural disasters strike, there is agricultural insurance. Not only that, the government regularly offers free agricultural training and interest-subsidized loans to support scaled operations." From what he heard and saw, plus what his parents told him, Yu Mingjie began to feel tempted.

Later, Yu Mingjie looked up a series of policy documents online, which further strengthened his confidence in starting a business. "Innovation and entrepreneurship are the call of the times to us college students!" said Yu Mingjie. Agricultural development on a large scale is surely a direction. Unwilling to settle for the status quo, he resolutely chose to return home and start a business, first transferring over 100 mu of land.

Deep in thought

Settling on the rose industry

"After transferring the land, my friends all asked me what I planned to do with it. I said I didn't know." Yu Mingjie smiled. At the time, he just wanted to seize the opportunity to transfer land first. As for what to do next, he really hadn't figured it out.

Only then did Yu Mingjie begin traveling around to investigate: grapes, citrus, plums, kiwifruit, medicinal herbs and more were all rejected one by one. "Personally, I think these projects have long investment return cycles, large market price fluctuations, no distinctive features or competitiveness, and are hard to extend into an industrial chain, so I ruled them all out." Yu Mingjie began to fall into distress.

While pondering deeply, Yu Mingjie suddenly remembered the rose tangyuan and rose cakes his grandmother made every New Year when he was a child. They were fragrant and sweet, refreshing both body and mind. "Everyone has a taste from childhood. The most beautiful flavor in my memory is that rose fragrance." Yu Mingjie began collecting and following information about roses, and went to Kunming, Lijiang and other places to investigate. He found that people place great importance on food safety, health and ecology, and that rose series foods fit exactly with people's lifestyle tastes and consumer psychology. This further strengthened his confidence in focusing on the rose industry.

Company + Farmers

Roses pave the road to development

Yu Mingjie grew up hearing stories about Su Dongpo and his mother, Lady Cheng. "'Sansu culture' and 'Dongpo culture' are well known to everyone, and the fragrance and beauty of roses match very well with Lady Cheng's dignified and virtuous image," said Yu Mingjie. He hopes to use the rose industry to promote Dongpo culture and Lady Cheng culture.

With a clear company positioning, Yu Mingjie was full of confidence. He invited flower experts from Yunnan to test the soil, examine the climate and survey the terrain, and introduced a patented dark red edible rose variety with characteristics such as a long flowering period, high yield, good quality and strong fragrance. Soon after, Lady Cheng Rose Garden began intense work on land leveling, ditching, film mulching, ridging and hole digging. "Now, looking at the roses blooming all over the ground, I feel a great sense of achievement and happy anticipation," said Yu Mingjie.

The first phase of the rose garden covers about 200 mu, located in Sansu Township, Dongpo District. At present, dozens of mu of edible roses bloom from March all the way to November. Seen from afar, it is a sea of fiery red flowers, and the rich fragrance can be smelled even when driving past.

After the roses bloomed, Yu Mingjie successively contacted a number of capable and qualified manufacturers to cooperate, launching a series of products such as rose tea, rose cakes and rose powder. They participated in the Sichuan International Tourism Expo and the International Bamboo Art Expo. Almost everyone who tasted the rose products became a repeat customer.

The good market response to the rose series foods further strengthened Yu Mingjie's commitment to the "company + farmers" development model, striving to drive the rose industry in his hometown, effectively solve farmers' employment and increase local people's income.

Next, Yu Mingjie is determined to build the rose garden into a distinctive cultural attraction step by step. "Because the investment is relatively large, I decided to proceed steadily and use the profits from the rose series products to gradually feed back into building the rose garden. I aim to expand the second phase to 500 mu next year, improve supporting facilities such as dining and entertainment at the base, and drive the development of suburban sightseeing tourism in Meishan," said Yu Mingjie. Under the policy background of "mass entrepreneurship and innovation," he also hopes to provide a platform for college student entrepreneurs to learn, and to have more opportunities himself to connect with relevant resources.