Lotus planting brightens the road to prosperity for young people in Suichuan
Right now, at the Wang Tousheng lotus base in Hongshan Village, Bizhou Town, Suichuan County, Jiangxi Province, more than 260 mu of lotus are in full bloom. The lush lotus leaves in the fields are a sight of green, standing tall like canopies, while the red and white lotus flowers either cluster together in plump buds waiting to open or bloom freely in full glory, forming a beautiful scene. This lotus base was built single-handedly by Wang Tousheng, a young farmer from Hongshan Village, Bizhou Town. Through land transfer, he gathered land resources together to plant lotus and develop the "lotus pond economy," fattening his wallet and leading local villagers onto the road to prosperity together.
Wang Tousheng, a young farmer just over 30, grew up in a poor family. After failing the college entrance exam in high school, he went out to work in Guangdong. Over several years of working away from home, he gradually realized that earning money by selling hard labor was not as good as getting rich through skills. In 2010 he returned to his hometown to begin his entrepreneurial journey. After returning home, he used the money he had earned from working to start an excavator business. Through years of striving in the business world, he was down-to-earth and shrewdly capable, and he quickly carved out a place of his own.
During this year's Spring Festival, Wang Tousheng took the initiative to contact town and village leaders, saying he wanted to contribute something to the new socialist countryside construction in his hometown. After conducting preliminary market research, he discovered a business opportunity with good market prospects. It not only conformed to current industrial policy, but also had good economic returns: transferring land to plant lotus.
Many people locally had already tried land transfer, with both the joy of success and the pain of failure. But one thing was certain: to succeed, one had to have a distinctive industry as support and increase the added value of the industry. Wang Tousheng understood this even more clearly. After this year's Spring Festival, Wang Chaoliang transferred more than 200 mu of farmland in Hongshan Village at a price of 500 yuan per mu per year, chose to plant space lotus on a large scale, and invested more than 800,000 yuan to start lotus planting.
How to plant lotus was something Wang Tousheng thought about at all times. In his words, at the very beginning he even dreamed about it. When he encountered something he did not understand, he learned online, and he also took the initiative to join the "circle," paying close attention to the techniques of others in the same field. If he really did not understand something, he would go to someone's door to learn as an apprentice. When he had the chance, he listened to expert lectures and exchanged experiences with peers. Now, when it comes to fertilizing and controlling growth, Wang Tousheng has his own insights and experience. In response to the abundance of aquatic plants and plankton in the lotus fields, he raises ducks and fish under the lotus. They can serve as natural feed for the ducks and fish, and while purifying the lotus field environment, their droppings also provide pollution-free fertilizer for the lotus, opening a path of combining planting and breeding. Out-of-town merchants have come one after another to purchase fresh lotus seeds. The benefit per mu can reach 6,000 yuan, and the expected economic output value can reach more than 1 million yuan. This year he also used e-commerce to sell lotus seeds online. In the business of lotus leaves and lotus flowers, customers make lotus tea; he also sells ecological ducks and fish, and he will gain another considerable economic return.
Seeing the lotus economy blossom, Wang Tousheng revealed that next they will open a farmstay rich in local characteristics, allowing visitors to enjoy one-stop service of eating, sightseeing, and having fun. "We will take the lotus viewing garden as an opportunity to further plan the construction of an ecological farm, so that the ecological farm brings tangible benefits to every villager," Wang Tousheng said full of longing.