New farmer returns home to start a business, over 1,000 mu of pollution-free apple orchard yields a million jin a year
China News Service, September 19 - Wei Xingcai is from Zhongwei, Ningxia, and graduated from Ningxia Forestry Institute in 1996. After graduation, he went to work at the Qingdao Haier Guangdong office, and later worked at Guangdong Zhongshan Lianyi Network Technology Development Co., Ltd., where he successively served as business supervisor, vice president of sales and other positions. Later, because he had the development of agriculture in his hometown at heart, in 2008 he resolutely returned home to start a business, setting sail again in the field of agricultural planting.
In September 2012, he established the Zhonglian Fruit and Vegetable Circulation Professional Cooperative. The cooperative is located in Letai Village, Yongkang Town, Shapotou District, with complete supporting facilities and excellent products. It has 230 member households, a radiating area of 3,000 mu, and annually supplies 3 million kg of bagged apples, 2 million kg of unpacked fruit, and 30,000 kg of goji berries; it adopts the “cooperative + farmers” operating model, implements the modern agricultural development concept of “high quality, high efficiency, ecology”, adheres to pollution-free planting, has registered the “Shapo Red” brand, and currently has more than 1,000 mu of pollution-free certified apple orchard.
Wei Xingcai said that since he began using the Yimutian APP, he has often checked market conditions and published supply information, and that the Yimutian APP has helped him a great deal in product sales. In the process of selling red onions this spring, many out-of-town customers contacted the cooperative through the Yimutian platform to discuss cooperation. So far, more than 20 orders have been completed through Yimutian, and sales of apples and red onions have reached about 500,000, with products sold as far away as northern Shaanxi, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia and other places.
Leveraging the regional advantage of the high-quality apple production base at the southern foot of Xiangshan in Zhongwei City, the cooperative adopts green cultivation techniques, implements whole-process quality control and traceable management, and ensures the safety of agricultural products. It also uses its own advantages to innovate agricultural business methods, forming a complete industrial chain from agricultural product production to supermarket terminals, and raising the level of agricultural industrialization, scale and modernization. The cooperative also strives to do a good job in the circulation link, improve the transparency of market information, improve social service levels, and promote agricultural technological progress.
To strengthen brand communication, the cooperative has built a promotional website and is also gradually improving its sales layout. It has already set up sales points in Yinchuan Sijixian Market, Changsha Hongxing Market, Guangzhou Jiangnan Agricultural and Sideline Products Wholesale Market, Zhongshan Shalang Agricultural and Sideline Products Wholesale Market and other places; to increase the added value of agricultural products, the cooperative has also strengthened cooperation with universities and scientific research institutions, striving to realize the transformation and upgrading of traditional agriculture; in addition, it actively takes on social responsibility, insists on putting integrity first and people foremost, and actively cooperates with government departments to jointly improve agriculture's ability to withstand market risks and promote farmers' income growth.
Wei Xingcai said that in the future he will still adhere to pollution-free planting. With economic development and the improvement of people's quality of life, he firmly believes that green, environmentally friendly, healthy and safe agricultural products will become a consumption trend, and he will also lead more fellow farmers onto the road to prosperity.