College student Li Tao returns home to start a business, forging a green path to prosperity

Li Tao, a college student from Linze County, became an enviable urban white-collar worker after graduating from university, but at the height of his promising career, he resolutely gave up his career in the big city and returned to his hometown to develop modern agriculture together with his family, bravely pursuing his dream of green entrepreneurship and prosperity.

When we met Li Tao, he was inspecting the growth of plateau summer vegetables in a plastic tunnel. Looking at the lush, promising baby cabbage, Li Tao happily told the reporter: "We signed a vegetable purchase contract with Linze Baihui Company. You see, the first crop of vegetables is growing so well now. When they hit the market in May, we can earn at least over 400,000 yuan."

Li Tao, now 28 years old, graduated from Beijing Electronic Science and Technology Institute in July 2009 with a degree in Electronic Information Engineering. He successfully entered the advertising planning industry in Beijing and became an urban white-collar worker, but the distant distance did not make him let go of his longing for his hometown and loved ones. In October 2005, after hearing that the state was increasing its support for modern agricultural development and that many relatives and friends in his hometown had found prosperity through agriculture, Li Tao was moved. He resolutely abandoned his career in Beijing and returned to Xinhua Village, Xinhua Town, his hometown, planning to lease rural farmers' land to develop green modern agriculture. "I saw that the county has particularly strong support for facility vegetable development, and others who grow vegetables all get very good returns, so I also transferred 173 mu of land to develop open-field and plastic tunnel plateau summer vegetable planting. I'm sure I can also get a good income," Li Tao explained.

Easier said than done. When Li Tao discussed land transfer contracts with the villagers, he encountered enormous resistance. "Land is our main source of livelihood. If we transfer it, what will we do? What if the land isn't managed well?..." Questions from the villagers came one after another. To dispel the villagers' concerns, Li Tao discussed with village officials and talked with the villagers household by household. After more than a month of effort, he finally succeeded in winning over the villagers. In December 2015, Li Tao raised 900,000 yuan in funds and established the Jinshuoyuan Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Planting Professional Cooperative. He transferred 700 mu of land from households in Villager Groups 1 and 2 of the village at a price of 1,000 yuan per mu, built 91 new steel-frame greenhouses, signed a contract with Linze County Xinhezuo Baihui Company to plant over 170 mu of plastic tunnel and open-field plateau summer vegetables such as baby cabbage and broccoli. At the same time, he signed a stevia order contract for over 300 mu with the Linze County Minsheng Stevia Professional Cooperative, and planted the remaining over 200 mu with silage field corn, embarking on a "diversified" green modern agricultural entrepreneurial path to prosperity.

Developing modern agriculture is inseparable from scientific management techniques. As a "layman" in planting, Li Tao regularly participated in agricultural science and technology planting training organized by the county's agricultural department. At the same time, he actively sought advice from other skilled growers and also used his evenings to study online, finally transforming himself from an outsider into an expert in planting. "Now I understand basic vegetable management and pest and disease control techniques, and I've even been hired as a farmer technician, specifically responsible for technical guidance in the area," Li Tao said proudly.

Talking about his next development plans, Li Tao said with full confidence: "I want to further expand my planting scale, striving to expand the planting area to over 1,000 mu. At the same time, I'll provide technical guidance to my fellow villagers and lead more of them onto the green development path to prosperity."