Wei Meifen, the Silkworm-Raising "Top Woman Scholar": A Leader in Becoming Prosperous
At 49, she not only succeeded in starting her own business but also led the villagers to prosperity. Poor households can buy from her on credit and pay only after they have earned money. She is Wei Meifen, a farmer in Chongmai Town, Liucheng County, Liuzhou City, a silkworm-raising "top woman scholar," and an outstanding member of the Communist Party.
On June 24, when the reporter met Wei Meifen in the Chongmai Town community, she had just come out of a resident's home, helping people handle the paperwork for joining the new rural pension insurance scheme. Today Wei Meifen wears many hats. Since 2008, she has served as director of the Chongmai community, and she is also the founder of a young-silkworm co-rearing base, and she took the lead in establishing a mulberry silkworm professional cooperative with more than 300 member households.
Wei Meifen began raising silkworms in 2005, and through study she mastered skilled techniques for growing mulberries and raising silkworms. In 2006, she was the first in Chongmai Town to build a young-silkworm co-rearing site, and afterwards she took the lead in establishing a mulberry silkworm association and a mulberry silkworm professional cooperative. By 2007, Wei Meifen's mulberry garden had expanded to 50 mu, making her the owner of the largest young-silkworm co-rearing base in Liucheng County, and, having grown rich through science and technology, she became a "silkworm-raising top woman scholar" worth a million. Today, she has grown from raising just a few dozen batches of silkworm eggs a year at the start to 8,000 batches a year. She has not only become rich herself but has also driven the villagers to employment and prosperity.
During each young-silkworm rearing period, Wei Meifen hires 20 villagers to handle the daily work. The villagers do not neglect their own farm work, and they can also earn a substantial monthly salary. When selling young silkworms, Wei Meifen supplies them to farming households at below-market prices, or sells on credit to poor farming households. Afterwards, Wei Meifen takes the initiative to guide the villagers in scientific rearing, and after about a month of rearing, the villagers can earn a 10-fold profit.
It is understood that those poor households who buy silkworm eggs on credit can all pay after they have earned money, and some can even put off payment until the following year. Wei Meifen's good deeds have set many local people on the path to prosperity and higher incomes through growing mulberries and raising silkworms. Driven by Wei Meifen, Chongmai Town now has more than 10,000 mu of mulberry gardens, and the town's farmers' per capita income from mulberry silkworms alone is nearly 4,000 yuan.