To realize the dream of getting rich through agricultural machinery, he persevered painstakingly for sixteen years
With the increase in the quantity and improvement in the quality of agricultural machinery and equipment, there is an urgent need to build a sufficient, high-quality, and rationally structured team of management and technical personnel, to accelerate the training of a large number of new-type agricultural machinery operators who understand technology, can operate machinery, and are good at business management, and to follow the path of agricultural machinery technology development.
The Xinshengyuan Agricultural Machinery Professional Cooperative in Kuangli Village, Huaiyin District is not only well known in nearby districts and counties, but also has a small reputation throughout the city. Whenever the agricultural machinery operators of Huaiyin District mention the name of Li Qingyou, the founder of the cooperative, they all give a thumbs-up, because the image of Xinshengyuan Agricultural Machinery Professional Cooperative as one with high credibility, good service, good returns, and a good reputation has long been deeply rooted in people's hearts. It is a brand representative of agricultural machinery operations in Huaiyin District and a "star operation team" for cross-regional agricultural machinery operations in the district.
In recent years, Li Qingyou has led his agricultural machinery professional cooperative, and the practices and experience in agricultural machinery harvesting production in Kuangli Village, Huaiyin District have been widely praised. His achievements in industrial development, land contracting, and demonstration planting have also been widely recognized and fully affirmed by the higher-level Party committee and government and the broad masses of villagers. It can be said that Li Qingyou has naturally played an indispensable role in achieving such results.
Loving this land that gave him life and raised him
A beautiful two-story small building and a spacious courtyard, this is the home of agricultural machinery operator Li Qingyou. Parked in the courtyard are wheeled tractors, small four-wheel tractors, agricultural three-wheel transport vehicles, harvesters, straw crushers, plus rotary tillers, irrigation and drainage machinery, and many other types of agricultural supporting implements, more than 10 units (vehicles) in total, just like a small-scale agricultural machinery exhibition and sales site.
Li Qingyou, born in 1974, is a villager of Kuangli Village, Huaiyin District. He has been engaged in agricultural machinery operation and production for 16 years. He is familiar with various types of agricultural machinery and implements, has rich experience in machinery operation, and is a locally somewhat well-known agricultural machinery expert.
In 1987, Li Qingyou, having graduated from junior high school, out of love for this land that gave him life and raised him, decided to give up the opportunity to work in a factory near the village and began farming at home. At that time, it happened to coincide with the Jinan western vegetable basket project. There were 10 quotas in the village, so he applied for land to grow cucumbers.
" In the early 1990s, an apprentice in a factory earned only 15 yuan a month, while at that time I sold cucumbers at the market during the May Day holiday and could earn 150 yuan to 200 yuan a day." Li Qingyou said proudly that at that time he felt that farming was not a losing proposition, but rather had great prospects.
By 1997, disregarding his family's opposition, he applied to contract another 20 mu of land, growing not only grain crops but also watermelons, various vegetables, and so on. Although the scale of the contracted land was not large, Li Qingyou worked with great relish. The good times did not last long. By 2000, because the various costs of growing crops were constantly rising, and due to factors such as climate, Li Qingyou began to find farming increasingly difficult in these years.
He had an agricultural machinery dream since childhood
When talking about why he chose the path of an agricultural machinery operator in the first place, Li Qingyou's eyes were full of reflections on the past. Li Qingyou said that he was born in the countryside and grew up in the countryside, and had loved this land since childhood. "I have had an agricultural machinery dream since childhood."
He remembers that in the summer of 1999, when their village was harvesting wheat, they were troubled because they could not find a harvester, and from this the idea of buying a harvester sprouted.
In 2000, Li Qingyou took out the only 10,000 yuan in savings in the family, and after scraping together money from various sources, borrowed 6,000 yuan, and bought a second-hand Shanghai 50 tractor. During busy farming seasons he harvested wheat, and in slack times he farmed steadily at home. After seeing the returns, Li Qingyou did not use them for consumption, but instead continuously upgraded his agricultural machinery. In 2009, he purchased a brand-new "Dongfanghong 90" tractor; in 2011 he bought an even larger 95 tractor.
During the wheat harvest, as long as anyone in the village gave him a shout, Li Qingyou would promptly go to cut wheat and plow land for them. Whether they had money or not, he would do the work first and talk about the rest later. He said, "We are all farmers, and none of us has it easy. In recent years, the country's policies have gotten better and better. Subsidies for purchasing agricultural machinery have saved us operators a lot of money on buying machines. Relevant departments also issue cross-regional operation certificates free of charge and open green channels for agricultural machinery refueling, which saves us time and improves efficiency. As agricultural machinery operators, we should also repay our fellow villagers as much as possible..."
It is understood that Li Qingyou has a very good reputation locally, and many farmers are willing to use his harvester and tractor. Li Qingyou said that this is because the common people trust him, and he cannot let everyone down.
"Over these years, I have become rich through agricultural machinery, and my family has also built a tall house. Although running around all year is very hard, it has really been worth it. Not only has my own life improved, but I can also solve difficulties for my fellow villagers. That is very good." People in the village all say, "Li Qingyou drives his machines well and has good character, and his days are getting more and more prosperous."
Over 16 years, Li Qingyou invested several hundred thousand yuan successively to upgrade and transform the original agricultural machinery and implements, and joined with agricultural machinery operators from several surrounding villages to establish the Xinshengyuan Agricultural Machinery Professional Cooperative, with agricultural machinery also expanding to several dozen units. The continuous growth of the scale of agricultural machinery operations enabled him not only to display his talents in agricultural machinery operations in surrounding townships, districts, and counties, but also to achieve operations across districts, counties, provinces, and cities.
Getting rich through agricultural machinery drives the whole village
In order to be a good leader, in addition to leading cooperative members in carrying out regular agricultural machinery operations, Li Qingyou pays even more attention to expanding the operation market, managing the cooperative well, and improving the economic returns of members. To this end, he thinks deeply and far ahead, actively carrying out service models such as signing operation contracts with townships or village collectives and providing one-stop operation services. In the name of the cooperative, he successively signed operation contracts with nearby Houzhou Village, Qianzhou Village, Hetouwang Village, Fengqi Village, Dujiamiao Village, and others, covering three townships and 21 natural administrative villages.
Because the cooperative has a large number of machines, good operation quality, and is punctual and trustworthy, the cooperative's agricultural machinery first won the trust of users; secondly, because of contiguous operations, reduced losses, and improved efficiency, the cooperative took the initiative to lower its charging standards, allowing users to benefit. Therefore, the contract operations of Xinshengyuan Agricultural Machinery Professional Cooperative got off to a strong start. Every year, not only the areas around its own village, but even major agricultural production towns in other districts and counties would find Xinshengyuan Agricultural Machinery Professional Cooperative early to sign operation contracts. After members joined the cooperative, they also found an "iron rice bowl." As long as they followed the division of labor and did the work well with guaranteed quality and quantity, they could receive dividends and money. As for worrying matters such as contacting business and pressing for wages, Li Qingyou was responsible for all of them.
Now, Li Qingyou has set his sights back on land transfer. In the past two years, he has contracted 213 mu of land through different transfer methods, registered "Jinan Fengguo Family Farm," and become a major grain-growing household in Huaiyin District.
Last year, under the leadership of the Huaiyin District Agricultural Development Bureau, he actively applied for a ginger planting demonstration project. Together with staff from the Huaiyin District Agricultural Development Bureau, he went to Qingzhou to introduce advanced ginger seedlings and carried out demonstration planting on 15 mu. After careful management, the yield per mu was nearly 10,000 jin. Calculated at 1.3 yuan per jin of ginger, the income reached more than 170,000 yuan. This year, he applied to plant 50 mu of ginger. Although the rainy season has been frequent this year, the income is still expected to reach more than 400,000 yuan.
It can be said that over the past 16 years, through wind and rain, Li Qingyou has always held deep feelings for this land, actively devoted his diligence and wisdom, fully tapped the production potential of agricultural machinery, actively took the lead in demonstrations, guided farmers to accept new agricultural machinery and new agricultural technologies, and greatly improved the efficiency of mechanized operations.