Laid-off worker Liu Shiguo has blazed a road to prosperity
Some say that growing vegetables is a hard job: scratching a living from the soil, covered in mud, toiling all year round for barely any money. But Liu Shiguo believes that "the fragrance of plum blossoms comes from the bitter cold" - anything worth doing requires heart's blood and sweat before it can bring a return.
On the morning of April 13, the reporter came to the home of Liu Shiguo, a greenhouse vegetable grower at Yuying Forestry Farm of Tuqiang Forestry Bureau, and saw sunlight falling on Liu Shiguo's 8 vegetable greenhouses, reflecting a dazzling light. The quiet land radiated a warm breath, wrapping every vegetable, giving back the most selfless reward to the person who had poured out bitter sweat for them.
Seeing Liu Shiguo busily and methodically at work in the greenhouse, the reporter could not help wondering: how had such a stocky northeastern man become an expert at farming? It turned out that Liu Shiguo was an educated youth worker at Yuying Forestry Farm of Tuqiang Forestry Bureau, and his wife was an educated youth worker at Yuying Timber Yard; both husband and wife bought out their seniority in 1998. Liu Shiguo had worked as a head sawyer and saw blade repairman at the forestry farm's comprehensive timber processing yard. After the buyout, their child was in high school and the expenses were great, bringing heavy financial pressure to family life. The meager income from odd jobs was simply not enough to cover expenses, and for a time the couple frowned with worry over this.
At night, Liu Shiguo tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep at all. He thought of going to the forestry bureau leaders, but after turning it over and over in his mind, he realized that even if he got help, it could only relieve hunger for a moment, not keep him fed for a hundred meals. If he wanted a prosperous life, he still had to find his own way out. Looking at his own broad courtyard, Liu Shiguo hit on the idea of growing vegetables. Like most entrepreneurs, Liu Shiguo had no technology, let alone any clear approach; all he had was strength and a passion to change his life as it was, yet he chose vegetable growing without hesitation.
In the early days of starting out, owing to a lack of growing experience and technology, after a year of hard work he not only made no money but also lost his capital. But the stubborn Liu Shiguo did not lose heart; he held in a burst of determination to make vegetable growing succeed. Having learned from failure, Liu Shiguo realized that it was very hard to make money by simply growing vegetables, so in light of the local cold temperatures and the fact that in winter people could not get fresh vegetables or fresh fruit, he decided to build greenhouses and grow off-season vegetables and fruits. Short of funds, he and his wife dug pits, buried posts and covered the sheds themselves. Short of materials, he sought help from the forestry farm. Short of technology, he humbly asked experienced vegetable farmers for advice and paid out of his own pocket to subscribe to fruit and vegetable growing books to study. To ensure the temperature inside the greenhouse, he made a stove himself and moved into the greenhouse to live. When rain, snow and freezing weather came, he ate and lived in the greenhouse 24 hours a day, promptly reinforcing it and clearing snow and rainwater from the greenhouse, guarding the shed and tending the seedlings as if looking after a child. Relying on a spirit of enduring hardship and diligent study, he turned from a layman in fruit and vegetable growing into a widely known vegetable-growing expert. He developed a technique for grafting cucumber onto pumpkin, which not only increases cucumber yields but also strengthens the seedlings' disease resistance. Through his research, he also grew red-fleshed muskmelon, local watermelon, Hami melon and others in the north.
In just a few short years, Liu Shiguo learned greenhouse supplemental lighting, supplemental covering and the characteristics and cultivation management methods of different vegetables, shifting from ordinary vegetable growing to greenhouse vegetable growing. Today, his plantation has expanded to 4 mu of land, with 8 greenhouses, including 3 greenhouses, an annual output of more than 3,000 jin of specialty fruits and more than 20,000 jin of vegetables. His self-produced fruits and vegetables use no pesticides and no chemical fertilizers, are sweet and crisp to the taste and are in short supply, deeply favored by consumers in Mohe, Tuqiang, Amur and other places, generating an annual output value of more than 80,000 yuan and a net income of 60,000 yuan.
One flower blooming alone is not spring; a hundred flowers in full color make spring fill the garden. After becoming prosperous, he did not forget those who had once helped him. To anyone willing to grow vegetables, he provided technical services free of charge and patiently passed on growing techniques. Under his help and influence, Yuying Forestry Farm now has 12 growers of various kinds and 87 greenhouses. Watching his companions' wallets grow fuller and their days grow more prosperous, Liu Shiguo said with a simple, honest smile: "Seeing everyone living a good life, all my hard work over these years has been worth it. Thinking back to the beginning, if I had done nothing after the buyout and just thought about waiting, relying and asking, how could I have the happy life I have today!"