Building the Xueguan Vegetable High-Efficiency Agriculture Base to Boost Targeted Poverty Alleviation

For days, villagers of Xueguan Groups 1 and 2 in Xueguan Village, Jichang Town, Qinglong County, have been busy in the terraced fields converted from sloping land, planting vegetables, as the "cooperative + poor farmer households" model to boost targeted poverty alleviation proceeds at full speed.

Walking into Xueguan Village, the broad vegetable base is very eye-catching, with sheets of white plastic film covering the terraced fields converted from sloping land, and a hundred mu of vegetables lush and green, growing very well. The villagers are busy in full swing, some leveling the land, some digging holes, some pulling film to cover, some transplanting seedlings, some fertilizing, some hilling soil, busy but orderly. The varieties planted include 9 types: cowpea, Chinese cabbage, tomato, chili pepper, eggplant, cabbage, bitter melon, cauliflower, and cucumber. It is expected that the first batch of fresh pollution-free vegetables this year will go on the market in mid-July.

Deng Le, 30 years old this year, lives in Yangqishan Villager Group, Xueguan Village, Jichang Town. He has a high school education and once served as a pharmaceutical sales manager and regional manager, responsible for marketing management in Hubei, Jiangxi, and Hunan provinces, with a good income.

For many years, on this land in Xueguan, which is plentiful and fertile and converted from sloping land into terraces, the villagers had been used to switching between planting wheat and corn, returning home during the busy farming season and going out to work during the slack season, but the villagers' wallets never bulged. Deng Le saw it and thought about it. He actively responded to the call of the Qinglong County Party Committee and government, resigned from his manager position, and resolutely returned to his hometown to start a business. Deng Le carefully read the "Implementation Opinions on the Vegetable Industry Boosting Targeted Poverty Alleviation in Qinglong County in 2016," identified the direction, targeted the market, and believed this was a once-in-a-lifetime development opportunity. So, together with 12 farmer households including Yin Meijuan and Deng Feng as initiators, he raised 500,000 yuan in self-funded capital, and in March this year formally established "Qinglong County Limin Tongda Planting Farmers Professional Cooperative" after registration with the administrative department for industry and commerce, with a vegetable planting demonstration area of 200 mu. Deng Le wants to lead the surrounding people to make the "gold" hidden in this land shine, benefit the common people, fully bring out the benefits of large-scale and differentiated planting, and enable the poor households registered as poverty-stricken in Xueguan Village to shake off poverty and become well-off as soon as possible.

In order to achieve large-scale operation, Deng Le, through land transfer, contracted more than 100 mu of land at a rent of 700 yuan per mu to plant vegetables, with preliminary investment of nearly one million yuan. Farmer households whose land management rights were transferred are absorbed as cooperative workers and paid by time and quantity. As the legal representative of the cooperative, he invited technicians from the county agricultural bureau to guide in the fields, strengthened the management of standardized production at the vegetable base, actively participated in pollution-free internal inspector training, passed the examination, obtained the Ministry of Agriculture pollution-free internal inspector certificate, and strives by the end of 2016, with the cooperative as the applicant and the demonstration base as the center, to apply for pollution-free production area certification for 500 mu of vegetables, seeking benefits from the market with green and ecological products as the brand.

At present, among the diverse vegetables in the terraced fields converted from sloping land, some are growing leaves, some are blooming, some are bolting, and some are bearing fruit. Deng Le is busy in the vegetable base all day long. Although it is hard work, whenever he mentions this year's harvest, he puts down the work in his hands and carefully recounts it to this writer one by one, sharing the joy of a bumper harvest.

Deng Le held a meeting of the cooperative's board of directors and strictly formulated the 2016 planting plan, divided into spring planting and autumn planting, so as not to leave the land idle and to seek benefits from the land and the market. Taking the market as the theme, he plants vegetable varieties needed by government, school, and hospital canteens, and actively does a good job in pollution-free vegetable production. Taking order agriculture as the main body, he signed purchase agreements with Qinglong County Feigu Food Co., Ltd. for 100 mu of green vegetables and 100 mu of kohlrabi, and was also used by Feigu Company as a base for demonstration and promotion.

This year, Deng Le submitted an "Application for Party Membership" to the Party branch of Xueguan Village, Jichang Town. The Jichang Town Party Committee and government recommended him to participate in study at the "Training Class of the Training Center of the United Front Work Department of the CPC Central Committee" as a "Qinglong County Rural Wealth-Building Leader." The Communist Youth League Qinglong County Committee issued him 4,500 yuan in youth entrepreneurship funds, and the county agricultural bureau provided him with 200 mu of plastic film free of charge.

Regarding future development, Deng Le is full of ambition and confidence. He is determined to lead more poor households, expand the planting area, extend the industrial chain, and build a uniquely distinctive Xueguan vegetable high-efficiency agriculture base.