Selling His House to Cash Out Tens of Millions, All to Chase the Farming Dream

Chen Yeshi carefully inspects the rice he planted in the field.

At noon yesterday, the sun blazed like fire. Chen Yeshi came once again to the rice field in front of Tonggu Village, Kelu Town, Leizhou City: "These 1,800 mu of rice fields are all part of a project supported by interest-free World Bank funding. According to the requirements of the World Food and Agriculture Organization, no chemical fertilisers or pesticides may be applied throughout the entire growing process, so that the rice fields can be restored to their original appearance. That's why I have to come and patrol basically every day." Wearing a pair of gold-rimmed glasses, if not for skin 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 accumulated considerable wealth, with an annual income of over ten million yuan, and owned two homes, 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 work the land, 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 specifically to talk him out of it. In the end, Chen Yeshi still insisted on his farming dream, gave up the big city and returned 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 Dapu Village, Fucheng Town, Leizhou City. "At the beginning, we talked until our lips were worn out, but the farmers simply refused to join our cooperative." Chen Yeshi mechanised everything on the several hundred mu of farmland he had transferred to his use, from ploughing, sowing, transplanting and harvesting, and both output and quality as well as income were higher than those of individual farmers. After several years of demonstration and driving development, his rice cooperative grew from just a few households at the start 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, Kelu Town, with the area increasing to more than 5,000 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; the several thousand mu of bananas about to go to market alone cost him several million yuan. "At that time I was mentally and physically exhausted, and I really wanted to give up. Later, the local government urgently delivered several hundred thousand yuan, which solved the pressing need." After the typhoons passed, he stood up from the mud, and last year returned to Shenzhen, which he had long been away from, sold off both homes including the duplex, and raised 16 million yuan in funds, all used for resuming production and continuing to expand production.

What the heart holds dear will surely echo back. This year, the sweet potatoes, taro, fragrant rice and red rice he planted achieved a great harvest, earning a profit of several million yuan, with the first glimmer of dawn appearing. At present, his son, a graduate of Guangdong University of Finance and Economics, was inspired by the spirit of his father's farming dream and took the initiative to return to the company as chief supervisor. Leaders from the Provincial Department of Agriculture and from 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 farming dream. I do not regret selling my houses to chase the dream." Chen Yeshi's face revealed firmness.

"He is a cultivator of local agriculture and a bearer of hope." Peng Bin, head of the poverty alleviation task force stationed in Namao Village, Leizhou, by the Provincial Department of Agriculture, expressed admiration for Chen Yeshi, who has chased his dream all along. It is reported that Chen Yeshi is cooperating with the poverty alleviation task force, preparing to precisely help farmers escape poverty. At present, his company has been submitted for evaluation as a leading enterprise of Zhanjiang City.