Small peppers grow into a big industry: the breeding path of local expert Gao Haitao
On July 25, in the height of summer, in the 68-mu trial area of Jiangsu Surun Seed Industry Co., Ltd. located in Jing'an Town, Pei County, a lively discussion meeting on science and technology training was underway. More than 100 large pepper growers and seed dealer representatives from all over the country attended the training session. As the keynote expert of this training session, Gao Haitao, director of the National Pepper Industry Alliance and head of Jiangsu Surun Seed Industry, was pressed with endless questions by pepper farmers. He compiled the technical key points such as pepper variety characteristics, planting management, and pest and disease control into rhyming jingles and explained them to everyone.
In the reporter's eyes, Gao Haitao is indeed not an ordinary farmer. After graduating from junior high school, he took the initiative to return to his hometown to farm and grow vegetables, and, combining the local planting advantages, became involved with pepper breeding. He transferred 326 mu of land and formed a cooperative specializing in sweet pepper and pepper breeding, production and operation activities. At first, he helped more than 10 agricultural research institutes across the country, including in Hunan and Jiangxi, multiply pepper seeds on contract, and over time multiplied more than 1,000 varieties. In the process of contract multiplication, Gao Haitao carefully studied the growth habits of each variety, its ability to resist pests and diseases, and so on. Through the pepper parent germplasm resources he had in hand, Gao Haitao gradually began to learn to do his own cross-breeding, and self-bred more than 200 new pepper varieties. The cooperative alone, through early seedling production, can drive more than 3,000 mu of pepper seedling land in the surrounding area.
Becoming involved with peppers
Forming a specialized cooperative
In 1997, 17-year-old Gao Haitao returned to Tanglou Village, Jing'an Town, Pei County, which has a tradition of growing vegetables. He rented 10 mu of land and took out pepper varieties selected and bred by the Xuzhou Vegetable Research Institute for trial planting. Gao Haitao named a particularly long linear pepper variety that he selected and bred, with strong resistance, a long picking period and especially high yield, Wangzhe. At that time, ordinary pepper growers earned 6,000 to 8,000 yuan per mu, while his new Wangzhe variety in trial planting could reach 12,000 yuan per mu. The news spread quickly in the local area, and vegetable farmers from miles around came one after another to ask about the technical requirements and introduce the variety for trial planting. The farmers' enthusiasm for getting rich moved Gao Haitao. The next year, he gave up profit on his seeds and let his fellow villagers trial-plant more than 200 mu, and that year the average income increased by more than 2,000 yuan per mu. This greatly encouraged and gave confidence to Gao Haitao, and further strengthened his determination and belief in opening up a path to prosperity through science and technology for agriculture.
As Gao Haitao bred more and more pepper varieties himself, the original protected land could no longer meet the need. He guided farmers to transfer 3,000 mu of land in surrounding villages and formed the Yunong Pepper Breeding Professional Cooperative.
In order to manage this land better and more precisely, and to further improve the pepper varieties, Gao Haitao built several houses in the field and did not return home all year round, living and eating there alone. He also set up the cooperative's "home" and the farmer training classroom there. Because the selected varieties were excellent and its business reputation was good, the cooperative quickly became profitable, with profits increasing by 10% each year. It is expected that this year's total sales will exceed 40 million yuan, and net income may reach 5 million yuan.
Mastering more than 300 kinds of pepper
germplasm resources
Gao Haitao said that when he first set foot in pepper seed production, it could be said to be small-scale and modest, and all of it was contract multiplication of varieties, with low returns. After nearly 20 years of exploration, he has mastered the germplasm resources of more than 300 kinds of peppers from all over the country. Gathering the essence of many sources, he used the various types of pepper male parents and female parents in his hands to cross with peppers selected in the wild, and bred a series of pepper hybrid varieties with independent intellectual property rights and strong disease resistance. Among them, the flagship "Wangzhe" pepper seed broke through 6,000 kg in sales last year and entered the top five pepper seed brands nationwide.
In the tide of fierce market competition, high-quality agricultural products are always beloved "darlings" that everyone loves. It is precisely based on this understanding that since the founding of Surun Seed Industry, Gao Haitao has consistently adhered to a brand strategy, introduced new varieties, promoted new cultivation techniques, and actively done good work in pollution-free product certification to increase the products' visibility. From seed selection to management, the company strictly controls every link: soil testing and formula fertilization, integrated pest and disease control... A series of pollution-free management measures have made the quality of the peppers rise steadily, and it has firmly secured a group of regular customers.
To "turn peppers into gold," one must quickly connect with the market. Surun Seed Industry set up a dedicated office location at the Jing'an Town E-commerce Public Service Center, selling boxed pepper seeds online. "E-commerce is now very widespread. As an emerging marketing method, it has advantages such as convenience and speed. By opening an online sales channel, not only can products be sold at the first opportunity, but the price is also guaranteed," Gao Haitao told the reporter.
At present, with approval from the provincial seed management station, Surun Seed Industry already meets the conditions for small-package pepper breeding. Talking about his plans going forward, Gao Haitao said: "Next, I will further introduce new technologies and new varieties, achieve new breakthroughs in scale, output and efficiency, and fully leverage the scale benefits of the family farm to provide other farmers with 'one-stop' services of unified seedling raising, unified fertilization, unified pesticide use, unified management and unified sales, helping and fueling farmers' path to prosperity."
In Gao Haitao's heart, there is still another dream. He wants to research deep-processing technology for peppers and green peppers, and turn the peppers produced by his fellow villagers into deep-processed products, so that growers can earn money all year round.