Small peppers yield big profits: Returning entrepreneur leads villagers to prosperity together

"This year, the peppers here can sell for an average of 5 yuan/jin, facing-heaven peppers can sell for 8 yuan/jin, and the most expensive pepper varieties can sell for more than 10 yuan per jin." Recently, at the vegetable base in Jinfeng Village, Kongtan Town, Yibin County, varieties such as red beauty peppers and green beauty peppers are growing well. Large-scale grower Yu Qibing happily told reporters that this is another bumper harvest season, and it is expected that all peppers will not be fully picked until mid-October.

Yu Qibing, 47 years old this year, is a native of Jinfeng Village. He worked away from home year-round, with an annual income of more than 300,000 yuan. In 2013, he returned home from working elsewhere and began to start a business, developing vegetable cultivation. "I used to sell vegetables in Xi'an. There was relatively large demand for vegetables in other places. When I came home and saw a lot of abandoned land in my hometown, I felt very sad." Therefore, he made up his mind to return home to grow vegetables and definitely help the people of his hometown become rich.

Once he had this idea at the beginning, Yu Qibing began to take action. In 2013, Yu Qibing transferred more than 100 mu of land. According to local natural conditions such as soil and climate, he planted vegetables such as broccoli, baby cabbage, and mustard in different seasons, all of which achieved good returns. Gradually, he expanded the scale of the base. After the "operation" was spread out, it also added jobs for local people.

"Every year during the busy farming season, my wife and I both come to help, and each person gets 60 yuan per day in labor fees." said Uncle Zhong, a poor household in the village. In addition, they also grow about 10 mu of vegetables themselves, and there should be no problem in shaking off poverty this year.

In this way, the news that developing the vegetable industry can make money spread throughout the village, and more and more villagers followed suit and began growing vegetables. In 2015, the village's vegetable industry scale expanded to more than 300 mu, with an annual output value reaching more than 3 million yuan, driving more than 60 households of villagers to develop vegetable cultivation.

"Villagers provide the land and only need to help plant. We cover seeds, fertilizer, and technology, and in addition, we also guarantee buyback." Yu Qibing said that in this way, the village's vegetable industry has developed and expanded. After output increased, villagers also no longer need to worry about subsequent sales problems. Yu Qibing took the lead in establishing the Shennong Fruit and Vegetable Professional Cooperative in Kongtan Town, Yibin County, and through the resources he accumulated while doing business elsewhere, established a "direct sales model" for vegetables in Jinfeng Village, directly selling the village's vegetables to Chengdu, Lanzhou, Xi'an, and other places, forming a unique vegetable sales chain.

Yu Qibing led villagers to develop together and become rich, winning praise from many villagers. In 2015, he was rated as a "Model Worker of Yibin County." In early 2016, in order to better develop the vegetable industry in Jinfeng Village, the Party committee and government of Kongtan Town also applied for project funds for him, built water storage tanks, a base sprinkler irrigation system, a cold storage, and so on, creating a good external environment for industrial development.

Now, the villagers of Jinfeng Village are changing their mindset step by step, and they are full of drive for the future!