Chen Yeshi sold his house and cashed in over ten million yuan, just to pursue his agricultural dream
Chen Yeshi carefully inspects the rice planted in the farmland.
At noon yesterday, the sun blazed like fire. Chen Yeshi came again to the rice fields in front of Tonggu Village, Kulu Town, Leizhou City: “These 1800 mu of rice fields are all part of a project supported by an interest-free World Bank loan. According to the requirements of the World Food and Agriculture Organization, the entire planting process cannot use chemical fertilizers or spray pesticides, so that the rice fields can be restored to their original appearance. So I basically have to come and patrol them every day.” Wearing a pair of gold-rimmed glasses, if not for his skin being even darker than a farmer's, it would be hard to connect him with a “farming fanatic.”
Chen Yeshi is from Fucheng Town, Leizhou City. In 2003, he resigned from the Zhanjiang Maritime Safety Administration and went to Shenzhen to start a logistics company. After several years of hard work, he became quite wealthy, with an annual income of over ten million yuan, and owned two houses, including a duplex. In 2011, when he returned home to visit his parents, he saw that many farmers in the countryside were no longer willing to farm, and he felt very uneasy about it. Coupled with the country's growing emphasis on agriculture, he hoped to return to his hometown to develop agriculture. But this decision met with strong opposition from his wife, and his younger sister even flew back from the United States specially to dissuade him. In the end, Chen Yeshi still insisted on his dream of pursuing farming and gave up the big city to return to his hometown. At the end of that same year, his wife divorced him.
After returning to his hometown, he first established the city's first rice cooperative in Dabu Village, Fucheng Town, Leizhou City. “At the beginning, we talked until our lips were worn out, but the farmers just refused to join our cooperative.” Chen Yeshi mechanized the entire process, from tilling the fields, sowing, transplanting rice seedlings, to harvesting, on the several hundred mu of farmland he had transferred to his use. Whether in output, quality, or income, it was higher than that of individual farmers. After several years of demonstration and driving development, his rice cooperative grew from just a few households at the beginning to 168 households at present. Later, he successively established the Dongxiyang Planting and Breeding Cooperative and the Tianzhuang Agricultural Machinery Cooperative. The transferred land expanded to Tonggu Village, Kulu Town, and the area increased to more than 5000 mu.
Just as Chen Yeshi was full of confidence and looking forward to a bumper harvest, the visits of strong typhoons “Kalmaegi” and “Rammasun” caused him heavy losses. Several thousand mu of bananas that were about to go on the market alone caused losses of several million yuan. “At that time I was mentally and physically exhausted, and I really wanted to give up. Later, the local government urgently sent several hundred thousand yuan, which solved the immediate problem.” After the typhoon passed, he stood up from the mud. Last year, he returned to Shenzhen, which he had not seen for a long time, and sold off both houses, including the duplex, raising 16 million yuan in funds, all used for restoring production and continuing to expand production.
What is constantly remembered will surely echo back. This year, his sweet potatoes, taro, fragrant rice, and red rice achieved a great harvest, earning profits of several million yuan, and the first glimmer of dawn appeared. At present, his son, who graduated from Guangdong University of Finance and Economics, was inspired by his father's spirit of pursuing the agricultural dream and voluntarily returned to the company to serve as chief supervisor. Leaders from the Provincial Department of Agriculture, Zhanjiang, and Leizhou City have visited his base many times to inspect and encourage him. “China has the Chinese Dream, and my dream is the agricultural dream. I do not regret selling my houses to pursue the dream.” Chen Yeshi's face showed firmness.
“He is a cultivator of local agriculture and a bearer of hope.” Peng Bin, leader of the poverty alleviation work team stationed in Namao Village, Leizhou, by the Provincial Department of Agriculture, expressed admiration for Chen Yeshi, who has pursued his dream all along. It is reported that Chen Yeshi is cooperating with the poverty alleviation work team and preparing to help farmers escape poverty in a targeted way. At present, his company has been submitted for evaluation as a leading enterprise in Zhanjiang City.