Tao Zhongzhi: A self-taught expert who grew up in the fields
Yews, osmanthus, camphor and other large saplings sway in the wind; flocks of mini fragrant pigs, mini fragrant chickens and large grey rabbits roam freely; there are also brick-and-concrete flat-roofed farm-worker dormitories among the trees and double-row-seat farm transport vehicles... What appears before the eyes on the endless stretch of hopeful hills and fields is the flourishing farm of the farmer Tao Zhongzhi.
In late spring, when the reporter met Tao Zhongzhi, legal representative of the Huaguoyuan Cooperative in Xiaobao Village, Guzhou Town, Rongjiang County, he was busy instructing workers to weed the privet. "I have been in this line for 17 years. Now the scale is large and I can't do it alone; only by teaching the techniques to others can I lead my fellow villagers to get rich and live a decent life together," Tao Zhongzhi said cheerfully.
"Master Tao is a 'self-taught expert' and 'close friend' recognized by the peasant masses around here. The comprehensive science and technology demonstration base he has planted through hard work and diligent study is a school for agricultural science and technology demonstration, promotion and outreach." "His agricultural techniques not only benefit the surrounding peasant masses but also reach peasant masses in 12 counties and cities across Guizhou, Hunan and Guangxi." Had Pan Yongqing, a cadre of the Rongjiang County Federation of Trade Unions standing nearby, not added this, the reporter would have found it hard to connect the plainly dressed, dark-skinned middle-aged man before him with honors such as the "Shennei Fund Agricultural Technology Promotion Award" of the China Agricultural Science and Education Foundation, the national "Youth Spark Leader," a provincial model worker, and a "top local talent" of Qiandongnan Prefecture.
Twenty-six years ago, Tao Zhongzhi, who had graduated from Rongjiang County Vocational Technical School, gave up the opportunity to work at the Rongjiang County Agriculture Bureau and went to Wugang in Hunan, Huaxi in Guiyang, Baise in Guangxi and Chongqing to study planting and breeding techniques. Through diligent study he learned a great deal of management technique and experience.
In 1994, after returning to his hometown, he borrowed 50,000 yuan from the local credit union and contracted 5 mu of degraded citrus grove in the village for technical renovation. "I first sawed the old fruit trees off in the middle, then bought high-quality citrus branches and grafted them onto the old trunks using the high-branch grafting technique, and applied fertilizer rationally and controlled pests and diseases. This combined the strengths of the old trees and the high-quality citrus branches and greatly shortened the citrus growing period," Tao Zhongzhi told the reporter.
Under Tao Zhongzhi's careful tending, the next year this degraded citrus grove took on new life and hung heavy with fruit. Nearby villagers came one after another to visit and seek his advice. Under his door-to-door help and guidance, the 12 citrus growers in Xiaobao Village, where Tao Zhongzhi lives, successfully completed technical renovation, bringing the village's citrus income in 1996 to more than 500,000 yuan and making it a famous "flower-and-fruit village" in Rongjiang County. For this, Tao Zhongzhi received a second prize for scientific and technological progress issued by the Rongjiang County People's Government.
"It was precisely the gaze of my fellow villagers yearning for agricultural science and technology knowledge and the government's recognition that strengthened my confidence in starting a business," Tao Zhongzhi said.
Having achieved initial success, Tao Zhongzhi felt deeply the enormous role of scientific and technological productive forces, and also felt deeply the poverty of his own knowledge and technique. Therefore, he did not hesitate to take out all the family's savings and went successively to the Agricultural College of Guizhou University, the provincial agricultural science institute and places in Shandong and Sichuan to study and investigate, seek advice from experts, buy agricultural technology books and study them intently, and solve problems in production. After the distance-education science and technology platform opened, he also actively studied practical agricultural techniques such as watermelon grafting, flower planting and sapling cultivation through the platform.
Through this "recharging," Tao Zhongzhi's drive for entrepreneurship multiplied - since 2000, he has invested more than 600,000 yuan and contracted more than 120 mu of land from the county farm to develop high-quality fruit, poultry raising, flower planting and urban landscape trees.
In order to devote himself wholeheartedly to production, he handed his two-year-old child over to his parents, and he and his wife camped on the contracted land, living there for 10 years. Entrepreneurship is slow and also arduous. During this period, Tao Zhongzhi experienced floods, snow disasters and even funding difficulties, but he overcame them all.
In fact, the process by which Tao Zhongzhi built a 200-mu comprehensive base of specialty fruit trees and flowers was also the process by which he grew into a "science popularization expert" recognized by the peasant masses.
Tao Zhongzhi's base is located on the Chejiang ten-thousand-mu dam in Rongjiang. In recent years, the peasant masses in the dam area have shifted from traditional cultivation of grain and vegetables to developing diversified industrial operations, so what they need most is advanced practical agricultural technical knowledge. In the early period, Tao Zhongzhi, who had gained knowledge and had some practical experience, often volunteered at farmers' technical night schools in several surrounding villages to teach peasant masses fruit-tree planting techniques. Over more than 10 years, he was successively invited by 16 townships, the county science association, the county party school and relevant county departments to teach fruit-tree cultivation techniques and melon, fruit and vegetable techniques. He was also hired by Rongjiang County Vocational Technical School as a guest teacher and by the Qiandongnan Prefecture and Rongjiang County science associations as a member of the rural science-and-technology wealth-building expert touring lecture team, teaching agricultural science and technology both inside and outside the county.
According to incomplete statistics, since starting his business, Tao Zhongzhi has given more than 300 lectures to farmer friends, with more than 30,000 attendances. Not only has he never charged any fee, he has even paid his own travel expenses.
As his fame spread, farmers who came seeking techniques because of his reputation gradually increased. The warm-hearted Tao Zhongzhi never kept his knowledge to himself, successively carrying out technical renovation and pest and disease control for villagers' orchards, bringing nearly 1,000 mu of orchards back into fruit.
In the citrus grove of Renyu Village, Guzhou Town, due to a lack of corresponding management techniques, 80% of the fruit trees were infected with canker and Qixing anthracnose. With Yang Chengjiang of Chejiang Third Village and Zhang Chengbao of Leli Town, 300 mu of fruit trees, under his careful help and renovation, flowered and bore fruit again. In the 140 mu of fruit trees of the Bakai Township credit union, due to poor management, insufficient fertility and serious pests and diseases, the fruit trees had severely withered. Under his meticulous guidance, the fruit trees that had withered for many years sent out new shoots, flowered and bore fruit, recovering 200,000 yuan in economic losses... Under his influence and leadership, Xiaobao Village and Chejiang today have planted high-quality fruit trees and vegetables on formerly barren land and are advancing toward the goal of green industrialized production.
In 2006, Tao Zhongzhi was elected a people's representative of Qiandongnan Prefecture. When he learned that Yuesai Village urgently needed to solve the difficulty of drinking water for people and livestock, he promptly worked with the village leadership team to formulate a plan, prepare a feasibility report and run around to the prefecture and county water departments, obtaining a special appropriation of 100,000 yuan. The Chejiang ancient banyan group is a provincial-level scenic area. Seeing that the scenic area lacked greening construction, he took the initiative to approach relevant departments and helped plant 850 sq m of turf and 50 landscape trees free of charge. When the area was greening both banks of the Duliujiang River, he donated saplings worth 30,000 yuan.
"I was born here and grew up here. I deeply love this land beneath my feet. Only when the mountains and ridges are all green and my elders and fellow villagers are all prosperous will my career count as a success!" Looking at the spectacular banyan group integrated with the Rongjiang Station of the Guiyang-Guangzhou high-speed railway and the line of Provincial Highway 308, Tao Zhongzhi was full of confidence, his words ringing with conviction.