Pan Ping pursues her dreams in the countryside through self-employment
On July 14, Pan Ping, general manager of the Shiwang Ecological Agriculture Professional Cooperative in Guangshan County, admired the scene of a bumper grape harvest.
Self-employment is her constant pursuit. After years of effort, she helped her father turn a little-known agricultural cooperative into an advanced collective cooperative in Henan Province. She is Pan Ping, general manager of the Shiwang Agricultural Cooperative in Guangshan County.
In 2007, after graduating from university, Pan Ping returned to her hometown to help her father run the business and took the position of general manager. After several years of hard work, the company was not only rated as a “key leading enterprise in agricultural industrialization in Xinyang City,” but also helped 175 local farming households become better off, increasing each household's average annual income by 4,500 yuan, and provided employment for more than 1,000 local farmers.
In 2015, in order to incorporate “Internet + modern agriculture” into the development of the ecological park, Pan Ping took the lead in designing and registering the commercial APP “Henan Ecological Agriculture Portal,” which became the first commercial APP in the field of ecological agriculture in our province. The APP aims to build a platform for the ecological agriculture industry within the province, change the traditional models of the agricultural industry chain, value chain, and supply chain, and solve the problems of traditional agricultural products being difficult to buy and difficult to sell. It can be said that applying the “Internet +” concept to the agricultural field was Pan Ping's first step in promoting the development of agricultural modernization and industrial upgrading in Guangshan County. Because traditional agriculture has low added value and low profit, most agricultural enterprises in Guangshan County followed the old path of traditional agriculture, with lagging market information and backward marketing methods. In response to this reality, Pan Ping promptly adopted the ecological park model for the layout and production of sightseeing agriculture, integrating agricultural activities, natural scenery, leisure and entertainment, and environmental protection, and achieving the unity of ecological benefits, economic benefits, and social benefits. Today, the company grows grapes, mulberries, and other fruits in the ecological park, following a sightseeing agriculture model of leisure picking, which has increased the added value of traditional planting, and it also deeply processes the fruit to brew fruit wine, expanding the agricultural industry chain. The fruit industry chain of “planting——picking——deep processing” has provided a useful attempt for industrialized agricultural operation in Guangshan County and promoted the upgrading of agricultural industrialization.
While starting her business, she did not forget her neighbors. While continuously creating economic benefits, Pan Ping also turned her eyes to society. In the winter of 2015, Pan Ping heard that in Saiyi Village, Baiqueyuan Town, Guangshan County, the father of a boy named Fu Huasong suffered from multiple illnesses and had lost the ability to care for himself, while his mother had a mental illness, and he also had a young younger brother. These misfortunes plunged the family into poverty with no source of income. However, Fu Huasong, only 13 years old, did not become pessimistic or despairing, but shouldered the heavy burden of the family with his young shoulders. After learning of Fu Huasong's touching story and his difficulties, Pan Ping and her staff together delivered cotton clothes, rice, flour, oil, books, and other gifts to Fu Huasong's home, and gave Fu Huasong a bank card, promising to deposit 500 yuan into the card every month thereafter as his living expenses until he graduated from university. This act of love was widely praised in society and was also commended by relevant superior leaders.
At present, the “Grape and Mulberry Fruit Wine Brewing” project of Guangshan County Shiwang Agricultural Development Co., Ltd. has obtained approval from the Shanghai Equity Exchange for listing on its Q Board, and has also received support from the Guangshan County People's Government. The company's official Q Board listing not only built the brand image of modern agriculture in Guangshan County, but also filled the gap in Q Board listing for enterprises run by women entrepreneurs in Guangshan County. Its successful listing and financing show that the company has received a good response in exploring the modern agricultural capital market, and also show that the upgrading of agricultural industrialization in Guangshan County has great prospects in the future.
In the face of achievements, Pan Ping is very calm. She told reporters that her lifelong wish is nothing else but to read all the books in the world. For the rest of her life, her wish is nothing else but to apply what she has learned to benefit society. Perhaps this is the wish of a new generation of university students who start their own businesses.