College graduate sisters return home to grow potatoes, helping a hundred farming households get rich
In the past two years, agriculture has become a hot area for venture capital, with entrepreneurs from all fields getting involved, and many ambitious young people hoping to find entrepreneurial opportunities in it. In Sanjiao Village, Tunzi Town, Xun County, there is just such a pair of sisters who, after graduating from university, did not stay in the city to work but returned to the countryside to "grow potatoes." They brought advanced planting techniques to the countryside and set up a dedicated agricultural cooperative, not only raising the income of their fellow villagers but also, with the help of the internet, selling their agricultural products all over the country.
Returning home to farm after graduating from university
The older sister Wang Meng, 27, and her younger sister Wang Ke, 25, are both university graduates. When the sisters returned to the countryside to start a business after graduating, many family members did not support them at first.
Wang Meng told reporters that for many rural people, sending their children to university is about letting them change their fate through knowledge, so the children no longer have to endure the hardship of "facing the yellow earth with their backs to the sky."
"But I like the countryside and I like agriculture. When I was in university, I already wanted to return to the countryside and devote myself to agriculture after finishing my studies." After Wang Meng told her family about her idea, she met with strong opposition from everyone.
"The relatives at home complained every day, saying we had finally graduated from university, and now we were coming back to farm, and all the knowledge we had learned was being wasted." Wang Meng said with a smile that her mother had even stopped talking to her because of it.
However, Wang Meng had one person's support, and that was her father, Wang Shuliang. Wang Shuliang is 53 this year. At the time, after Wang Meng told him her idea, he was very much in favor as soon as he heard it.
"The people farming now are all over forty or fifty, and few young people know how to farm. Someone has to farm this land. If she is willing to farm, then I support her." Wang Shuliang said that he had been in the agricultural supplies business his whole life, and seeing the state's support for agriculture growing stronger and farmers' techniques becoming more advanced, he did not think his daughter coming back to farm was anything shameful.
In 2013, after graduating from university, Wang Meng worked in the city for half a year before returning to the countryside to start a business; her younger sister Wang Ke also returned directly to the countryside after graduating in 2015, joining hands with her sister to make money in agriculture. The implementation of the land transfer policy and the spread of e-commerce brought the sisters new opportunities for rural entrepreneurship.
Their "potato story"
After some investigation, Wang Meng decided to grow potatoes. During the reporter's interview on June 7, Wang Meng and Wang Ke were in the field checking the growth of the potatoes. The patches of potatoes were about to be harvested, and the sisters were very happy.
Wang Meng told reporters: "To the south of us, it is too hot. Potatoes do not like hot weather, so they cannot be grown there; to the northeast of us, it is too cold, so they cannot be grown there either. So this season is suitable for growing potatoes in Henan and Shandong, but Henan mainly produces wheat, and the potato planting area is still not large."
"In spring we plant potatoes, in summer we plant peanuts, and when it gets cold, we plant spinach." Wang Meng said with a smile that she had already achieved land transfers of more than 500 mu, most of it planted in this way.
Although at first their family did not support them returning home to start a business, when they truly devoted themselves to agriculture, their family and the villagers still gave them a lot of help. Many neighbors knew the sisters were farming a lot of land, so during the few days of planting potatoes, everyone was willing to help. But what they did not expect was that the sisters finished planting all the potatoes in just a few days.
The villagers were all puzzled at how they planted so fast, and only after asking did they learn their "secret." Thanks to high technology, the younger sister Wang Ke alone did in three days the work that more than a dozen people would do in several days.
"A family in Xinxiang planted 40 mu of potatoes and hired many workers to help plant them. After a few days, the labor cost alone came to more than 10,000 yuan. But we used an advanced potato seeder. With one pass of the machine, the seeds, chemical fertilizer, herbicide, drip irrigation tape and plastic mulch were all laid out. I alone planted 50 mu in just 3 days." The younger sister Wang Ke said proudly. With advanced machines, they saved not only a lot in labor costs but also a lot of time.
When the villagers saw that their method was good, they came to borrow the machines, and the sisters generously took the machines out for others to use.
In addition to the existing agricultural techniques, the sisters Wang Meng and Wang Ke also kept going out to learn new techniques. "Every time I attend training, most of the people in class with me are older farmers, and almost none are my age." Wang Meng said.
In the past few days they had gone out of town again to order a potato harvester. Once the machine passes through the field, it can turn all the potatoes underground up to the surface, and people only need to pick them up and bag them, which can save a lot of manpower.
Wang Meng mentioned that because their village is located in a water-scarce area, they use drip irrigation to grow potatoes. The drip irrigation tape runs through every ridge of potatoes, "saving 70%-80% more water than flood irrigation. In the past, you had to water seven or eight times, but our potatoes are almost ready to harvest and we have only watered 3 times." Wang Meng said.
Ordinary potato planting yields about 6,000 jin per mu, and potatoes grown with drip irrigation yield basically the same. "If planted by traditional methods, given our situation here, watering these 50 mu of potatoes would cost several thousand yuan in water fees, but we only spent 1,000 yuan on water fees." Advanced planting methods saved them a lot of cost. The sisters Wang Meng and Wang Ke said that they use a peanut seeder to plant peanuts and also use drip irrigation to water them.
Bringing advanced technology to farmers
The sisters Wang Meng and Wang Ke not only brought advanced agricultural technology to their fellow villagers, but also put agricultural products online, and with the "internet plus agriculture" model, sold agricultural products all over the country.
"Now the internet and agriculture are especially closely connected, and we must also keep up. Large agricultural growers of grain and vegetables nearby also often ask the two of them to put agricultural products online for sale." Their father Wang Shuliang said proudly.
"A family in a nearby village contracted four or five hundred mu of land last year, of which 200 mu was planted with radishes. Later the radishes did not sell, so they came to our sister. Our sister posted the information online and helped them sell them all." Wang Ke said that they help farmers sell grain voluntarily and do not charge any fees, so the nearby farmers all trust them very much.
"Sometimes farmers from Tangyin even come to us specifically to ask for help." Wang Meng said that doing this not only helped others but also built good relationships, so that in the future they could carry out large-scale planting.
Since Wang Meng founded the Xun County Chengshun Crop Planting Professional Cooperative in 2013, they have achieved land transfers of more than 500 mu, managed more than 1,200 mu of land on a trusteeship basis, and helped more than 100 farming households get rich.
As the sisters Wang Meng and Wang Ke's business became more and more prosperous, the villagers' gossip grew less and less, and even young people left messages for Wang Meng supporting and encouraging her.
"For the future, we feel there is great promise. Next, we plan to make increasing potato yields our main goal. Right now the yield is about 6,000 jin per mu, while some places abroad can reach more than 12,000 jin per mu. We need to find ways to improve the water conservancy conditions and strive to raise the yield per mu to 8,000 to 10,000 jin." Wang Meng said.