Vegetable Poverty Alleviation: The Journey of a Rural Female Party Branch Secretary

“Beep beep…… rumble rumble……” At just past 5 in the morning, accompanied by the roar of vehicle engines, in the greenhouse base of the Evergreen Vegetable Professional Cooperative in Yaoying Village, Qiaotou Town, Sheqi County, Henan Province, vegetable farmers began another busy day, harvesting, sorting, packaging, weighing, loading…… everything was in good order.

“Our village's vegetables come in a full range of varieties, with high yields and good quality. Trucks come to buy almost every day.” Chen Shugui, the village Party branch secretary, who was inspecting and weighing the goods, spoke of the village's flourishing vegetable industry with irrepressible joy, “It was targeted poverty alleviation that lifted up our vegetable-specialized village.”

A Good Income-Generating Project: Act on It Once Decided

Yaoying Village is three kilometers from the county seat and is one of the 6 key poverty-stricken villages in Qiaotou Town. How to help impoverished households shake off poverty and grow rich, and live a moderately prosperous life as soon as possible, became the biggest worry on Chen Shugui's mind after she took office. In August 2013, just when she was fretting over the village's development and the villagers' path to prosperity, Chen Shugui received notice to attend the national village Party branch secretaries “Yulu” (Rain and Dew) Program training class in the provincial capital. Through continuous study, she was deeply inspired. Leveraging the village's transportation and location advantage of being close to the county seat, her development approach of relying on industry to lead the masses to prosperity gradually became clear, and greenhouse vegetables became her first choice.

Growing vegetables to get rich was a good idea, but putting it into practice was fraught with difficulties: Where would the money to build greenhouses come from? How to mobilize impoverished people to participate? How to solve technical problems? How to open up sales channels…… “Such a good income-generating project, no matter how difficult, must be carried out. We must help impoverished people get rich as soon as possible.” Chen Shugui has a stubborn streak and never gives up on something she has set her mind to.

Act once decided, and do it well. After the training class ended, Chen Shugui returned to the village and immediately reported to the relevant leaders of the Qiaotou Town Party Committee and Government. She organized meetings of the village two committees and representatives of the masses, combined what she had learned with the village's actual conditions, scientifically analyzed the vegetable supply and demand situation and sales prospects at that time, and after extensive verification and account comparisons, initially reached a consensus on developing the vegetable industry.

Build a Solid Foundation for the Vegetable Industry, Give Impoverished Households a Path Out of Poverty

Afterward, Chen Shugui organized dozens of farmers with vegetable planting experience and enthusiasm for greenhouse vegetable cultivation to visit and learn from Xiaguo Village and Xiaoheliu Village in Xinye County and Sheqi County. To dispel the masses' concerns, she took the lead herself in building 9 greenhouses and persuaded 12 Party members and cadres to join in. During this period, she traveled back and forth countless times between the vegetable bases of Xiaoheliu Village and Xiaguo Village. Master Cai, a local vegetable-growing expert at the Xiaguo Village vegetable base, was moved by her spirit and volunteered to serve as a technical advisor.

In this way, from the greenhouses being built and seeds going into the soil, to fresh cucumbers, peppers, and tomatoes being harvested and brought to market, the greenhouse vegetables achieved an output value of four to five thousand yuan per mu in a single season. The masses' eyes grew eager. Seeing that relying on the “vegetable basket” could indeed fill the “money bag,” they all sought out Chen Shugui, asking to build greenhouses and grow vegetables.

For impoverished households to build greenhouses and grow vegetables, the biggest bottleneck was funding. To solve the funding problem, through Chen Shugui's efforts, Yaoying Village's vegetable industry received strong support from the town government and the county poverty alleviation office. They successively secured 160,000 yuan in national poverty alleviation funds and 500,000 yuan in small-scale farmer loans from the credit union. Using the poverty alleviation project funds as a “golden key,” each greenhouse built by an impoverished household received 4,000-5,000 yuan in poverty alleviation funding support, along with subsidized interest loans; in addition, impoverished people were organized to participate in “Sunshine Project” and “Yulu Program” skills training. Yaoying Village's greenhouse vegetable industry advanced step by step each year. To date, nearly 200 vegetable greenhouses have been developed, and it has radiated out to drive neighboring Xiaochaizhuang Village to build more than 30 greenhouses. The scale benefits began to emerge, and the goal of a strong village and prosperous people was turning into reality step by step.

Join Forces for Development to Resist Market Risks, Let the Vegetable Industry Go Further

In the process of developing the vegetable industry, Chen Shugui discovered that farmers planted vegetables blindly and arbitrarily, lacking planning, which led to growing potential market risks. How to effectively avoid risks and help impoverished households truly “pull out the roots of poverty” and “move out of the nest of poverty,” “plant the seedlings of wealth” and “bear the fruits of wealth,” became the question Chen Shugui pondered day and night. After full discussion and deliberation with the village two committees, joining forces for development became the consensus. So, under her organization, Yaoying Village established a “Industry Development Mutual Aid Association,” with Party member cadres providing one-on-one assistance to impoverished households; and established the Evergreen Vegetable Professional Cooperative, organizing vegetable farmers to join together to venture into the market.

In 2014, the Evergreen Cooperative, together with 7 other vegetable cooperatives including “Bingyu” and “Xinlv” in Sheqi County, established the Wanshu Vegetable Planting Union Cooperative. Following the “six unifications” model of planting planning, breeding and seedling cultivation, agricultural input supply, technical guidance, organic certification, and branded sales, they strictly managed the entire vegetable production process. “With the union cooperative backing us, vegetable farmers just need to grow the vegetables well according to the plan. No need to worry about sales, and the prices are high. More impoverished households benefit from it.” Chen Shugui explained.

“The average benefit is over ten thousand yuan per mu. Greenhouse vegetables are our ‘golden rice bowl’ for shaking off poverty and getting rich.” Nowadays, in Yaoying Village, the masses all say that growing greenhouse vegetables was the right path to take. At present, the “Yaoying Village Agricultural Industrialization Development Five-Year Plan” and the “Yaoying Village Three-Year Poverty Alleviation Plan” have been established, the “Jiujie Family” vegetable trademark is being applied for registration, the 100-ton vegetable fresh-keeping warehouse project has been approved by higher authorities, 500,000 yuan in national “vegetable basket” project support funds have also been secured, and the centralized photovoltaic power generation project with a planned investment of 350,000 yuan is about to begin construction……

Shen Honghao, Staff Reporter Zhang Peiqi