Kiwifruit farming brings an annual profit of nearly one million yuan, college graduate returns home to start a business

There are many specialized cooperatives that have grown big and strong, but few like the old farmer's kiwifruit planting in Wangjia Town, Nanxi District, which under the leadership of Zhao Lai, a college graduate village official in Daba Village, has spread across districts and counties, and even beyond the city and into other provinces.

From college student to college graduate village official

In Daba Village, Wangjia Town, Nanxi District, kiwifruit is ushering in its harvest season. Zhao Lai cuts a kiwifruit open with a small knife, and the plump juice of the fruit immediately flows out. Red flesh, yellow flesh, carrying the unique fruity fragrance of kiwifruit, fresh and refreshing.

This is the 5th year since Zhao Lai graduated from university and returned to Daba Village, and the 4th year of running the specialized cooperative. Today, the cooperative has 83 member households and a planting area of 870 mu, distributed across Wangjia Town, Linfeng Township, Daguan Town, Peishi Township, and Xianlin Town in Nanxi District, Yibin County, Longmatan District of Luzhou City, Bijie City of Guizhou Province, and elsewhere. Of this, 360 mu are in Daba Village, Wangjia Town, with 26 member households.

Zhao Lai is a native of Daba Village. During university, he worked hard to study theoretical knowledge, often visited many industrial bases, and followed senior students pursuing master's degrees to internships in various places. In his sophomore year, he came into contact with the red-fleshed kiwifruit industry. Combining this with the actual conditions of his hometown, he felt that growing red-fleshed kiwifruit in his hometown might be a good path to change the face of his hometown. So in his junior year, he began his entrepreneurial journey.

In 2011, after graduating from Sichuan Agricultural University and returning home, he began planning his industry development. Back in his hometown, Zhao Lai had his own pressures. "At the time, making the decision to return home to start a business was not easy. After finishing university, returning to the still relatively backward Daba Village to start a business undoubtedly drew a lot of doubt from many people. Facing these pressures, I had only one thought at the time: I must keep going to realize my entrepreneurial dream, and at the same time be able to lead the people of my hometown onto the road to prosperity together."

In July 2012, he was admitted as assistant to the village director of Daba Village, which provided better conditions for his entrepreneurship. It was also from that year that he truly began developing his kiwifruit industry.

From a 20-mu orchard to an annual profit of more than 900,000 yuan

Rural development is a long and arduous road; only by first doing well for oneself can one lead more people. Acting on his words, in 2010 Zhao Lai began trying to plant his first batch of 20 mu of red-fleshed kiwifruit.

With no funds and relying only on loans and support from higher-level funds, Zhao Lai could only first transfer 20 mu of land for a trial. Until 2014, after 2 years of development and exploration by the cooperative, the benefits of kiwifruit planting gradually became apparent, and the scale had expanded to more than 200 mu, achieving an annual profit of 670,000 yuan and an average income increase of 8,100 yuan per person. Many villagers expressed their desire to join the cooperative.

In the process of starting his business, Zhao Lai never forgot his original dream and his current responsibility——to lead more fellow villagers to prosperity together. In 2014, with the help of the village Party branch, he once again transferred more than 100 mu of land and, together with some farmers willing to grow the crop, jointly established the Laonongjia Kiwifruit Planting Specialized Cooperative of Nanxi District, Yibin City, preparing to lead more people to make the kiwifruit industry bigger and stronger together.

"From the very beginning, what I had in mind was to grow organic fruit." Zhao Lai has always treated his orchard as a standard demonstration base, regularly providing technical guidance at growers' homes, and also signing protective-price purchase contracts with farmers. Farmers participate in production through the model of contributing land as shares and receiving dividends. Seeing that kiwifruit planting has good benefits and can increase income, surrounding farmers naturally are willing to join the ranks of kiwifruit growers.

At present, with the cooperative + Party branch + farmers development model, 83 villager households have joined the cooperative, with a total planting area of 870 mu, and the annual profit in 2016 is expected to exceed 960,000 yuan.

From one shining example to fruity fragrance throughout the orchard

The villagers have joined in, but how to grow the crop is a difficult problem. With the original industrial structure, villagers generally had low incomes and weak ability to withstand risk. Faced with a new project, many farmers still worried that kiwifruit planting would not yield high output, that sales would be poor, and that economic returns would be unfavorable, and they were unwilling to bear the risk.

To address these problems, the cooperative established a professional team, with 3 people respectively responsible for technical guidance, product sales, and publicity and training, which played a positive role. At the same time, by using QQ, WeChat forums, holding picking experience activities, advance reservations, and other sales models, it created a strong sales atmosphere and achieved rapid sales of the fruit. It also helped villagers break past outdated ideas and cleverly resolved farmers' concerns. One after another, more villagers joined the cooperative.

This year, with the help of the town Party committee and government, the cooperative successfully applied for the "Qinyuan" kiwifruit trademark and standardized product packaging. At the same time, the cooperative is actively exploring an agricultural-supermarket docking platform, hoping to broaden product sales channels through "Internet Plus" and increase members' incomes.

In 2015, the cooperative achieved economic income of 890,000 yuan, and in 2016 it is expected to achieve economic income of more than 2.1 million yuan. At the same time, as the cooperative continues to grow, it can also help more villagers increase their incomes and become prosperous. The cooperative is also committed to helping registered poor households escape poverty. By providing kiwifruit seedlings and planting techniques to poor households free of charge and other methods, it has already bundled assistance for 19 poor households, developed more than 50 mu of planting of the Chinese medicinal herb Andrographis paniculata, provided seedlings and planting techniques free of charge to 16 poor households, and created employment for 17 poor people.