A rural boy from Bobai builds a vegetable kingdom in Nanning

Wang Zhenyu is a true rural boy from Dungu Town, Bobai County. After graduating from high school, through hard work he accumulated a substantial amount of capital, rented more than 100 mu of land in Nanning, and built a "vegetable kingdom" with a monthly vegetable output of 150 tons - the Mingfeng Agricultural Products Professional Cooperative. He is committed to enabling ordinary people to eat healthy agricultural products, and to bringing farmers into the cooperative so that they move from traditional production methods to high-value-added industrialized production.

At least 3,000 kg of vegetables marketed every day

Recently, the reporter came to the Mingfeng Agricultural Products Professional Cooperative in Sitang Community, Santang Town, Xingning District, Nanning, and met Wang Zhenyu. This young man, who once became a "successful person" in the eyes of relatives and friends because he earned up to 10,000 yuan a day at most when doing vegetable wholesale business in Guangdong, had a dark face, marked all over by the traces of frequent farm work.

Walking into his vegetable planting base, the vegetables growing lushly are fresh and tender green. The base is fully equipped with an integrated water and fertilizer sprinkler irrigation system. "The vegetables in the base are watered and fertilized through the sprinkler irrigation system, which not only improves the precision of fertilization but also reduces labor costs," Wang Zhenyu introduced. If it is a sunny day, spraying is done twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon, to ensure the normal growth of the seedlings.

Pointing to some fields that had not yet been planted with vegetables, Wang Zhenyu told the reporter that there had been a lot of rain during this period, and the relatively low-lying fields could not yet be sown. "Only when the weather is fine and the soil in the fields is relatively dry can the vegetable seeds be sown."

On the other side of the base, more than 30 workers were picking vegetables. The reporter found that, strictly speaking, the vegetables being picked were only seedlings, growing densely. After the workers pull up the seedlings, they use small knives to cut off the roots.

"The vegetables we sell are all seedlings," Wang Zhenyu said. This not only shortens the time to market, but also makes planting very convenient, saving the trouble of transplanting. "These vegetables take only 25 days from sowing to harvest. After each harvest, we sow again immediately, ensuring that vegetables are available on the market every day." He said that vegetable prices have rebounded slightly now, at around 4 yuan to 5 yuan per kg.

Wang Zhenyu told the reporter that the vegetables currently marketed each day exceed 3,000 kg, and at the most reach 10,000 kg. The base has built a cold storage facility that can hold 20 tons of vegetables. The vegetables picked back each afternoon are first sent into cold storage for freshness preservation, and only at 8 p.m. are they taken to the market for wholesale.

Spotting the business opportunity, he began growing vegetables on his own scale

After graduating from high school, Wang Zhenyu went to Dongguan, Guangdong, to work. In 2010, Dongguan suffered a flood, and vegetables were extremely scarce. Trucks hauling vegetables from other places to Dongguan were snapped up by vegetable vendors as soon as they arrived at the market. "At that time, vegetables on the market sold for nearly 20 yuan per kg at the highest point," Wang Zhenyu said.

Wang Zhenyu seized this opportunity, quit his job, and specialized in hauling vegetables from Guangzhou to Dongguan for wholesale. He found a relatively large-scale vegetable planting base in Guangzhou and collected one to two truckloads of vegetables every day for wholesale in Dongguan.

It was precisely this transformation from migrant worker to "boss" that earned Wang Zhenyu his first pot of gold in life. At that time, he could earn several thousand yuan or even more than 10,000 yuan a day. "At that time, as long as there were vegetables, there was no worry about selling them," Wang Zhenyu said. It was also from that time that he saw the prospects of vegetable growing and came up with the idea of developing large-scale vegetable cultivation.

Later, through a friend's introduction, Wang Zhenyu rented more than 100 mu of land in Sitang Community, Santang Town, Xingning District, Nanning, established the Mingfeng Agricultural Products Professional Cooperative, and began his path of vegetable cultivation.

To invest more than 5 million yuan within two years

Now, the Mingfeng Agricultural Products Professional Cooperative has a professional management team and more than 50 workers. The existing cooperative planting area reaches more than 300 mu (including more than 100 mu of vegetable planting demonstration base). At present, it mainly grows leafy vegetables, chili peppers, bitter melon, long beans, and so on, with a monthly output of 150 tons, mainly sold to Nanning, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and other places, and an online sales system has been built in Nanning. "Vegetable production adopts the company-plus-farmers production model, carrying out intensive management of farmers' planting to ensure vegetable quality," Wang Zhenyu said. "Now the awareness of green, pollution-free, and organic food is deeply rooted in people's hearts, and the prospects for large-scale production of green organic vegetables are very broad." At present, the cooperative has a complete industrial chain covering product research and development, agricultural technical services, agricultural materials distribution, planting and production, storage and transportation, and sales.

Wang Zhenyu told the reporter that within two years he will invest more than 5 million yuan, build the entire base into greenhouses and polytunnels, and configure the infrastructure according to national green food standards. Within three years, he will develop the cooperative into a leading enterprise in Nanning's agricultural industrialization, drive farmers to prosperity, and move farmers from traditional production methods to high-value-added industrialized production.