Wei Jin: From a greenhorn to the king of fruits and vegetables

On a hill called Shihuapo in Xiayuan Village, Pianpo Bouyei Ethnic Township, Wudang District, the branches of more than ten mu of pear trees have already taken on a silvery coating. Not far away, kiwi and bayberry saplings stretch across the hillsides, fluttering in the wind.

This area is the "territory" of the local "king of fruits and vegetables," Wei Jin.

In addition to these dozens of mu of newly planted fruit trees, Wei Jin also owns more than ten mu of a specialty vegetable planting base. The green, pollution-free string beans and button mushrooms he grows are well known locally, and they have also earned him the first prize in Wudang District's 2007 "Bean King" selection and the second prize in Pianpo Township's 2007-2008 button mushroom "Mushroom King" contest. Wei Jin, who just turned 23 this year, still has a boyish, shy look, yet he is a fruit and vegetable expert and a leader in getting rich who is greatly respected by his fellow villagers.

Before becoming the "king of fruits and vegetables," Wei Jin had worked away from home for 3 years.

In 2001, when he was 20, Wei Jin went alone to Yiwu, Zhejiang, after graduating from vocational high school.

Wei Jin had originally wanted to get rich by working away from home, but he could only repeat monotonous and dull "screen printing" work in a cold factory building. Working more than ten hours a day on two shifts did not bring generous returns to the diligent Wei Jin. "The wages I got in hand each month were only five or six hundred yuan." To earn more money, two months later he began using all his spare time to take odd jobs at the nearby farmers' market. As long as there was money to be made, Wei Jin rushed to do dirty and tiring work.

"At that time, I only wanted to earn more money, and I could only rest four or five hours a day." Wei Jin recalled that gradually, while doing physical labor, he was also conducting market research. Which vegetables were priced high and had good sales trends, he silently kept all of it in mind.

"Save up money and return home to start a business!" In the process of working for others, Wei Jin was never satisfied with those pitiful few hundred yuan in wages, and he was brewing a grand plan in his heart.

Three years later, during a phone call with his father, he learned that his hometown, Pianpo Township, was vigorously carrying out agricultural industrial restructuring and encouraging and supporting farmers in growing pollution-free vegetables on a large scale. He, who had always lived frugally, took more than 30,000 yuan in savings, resolutely quit his job, and returned to Pianpo.

"The first feeling after coming back was: my hometown is changing more and more, the infrastructure has improved, and there are more preferential policies. This greatly deepened my confidence in development." Wei Jin said that after making a net profit of more than two thousand yuan from his first planting of waxy corn, he had an even bigger plan in mind: whether doing it small or doing it big, it was still doing it.

Afterward, Wei Jin contracted 5 mu of land and planted it all with green, pollution-free stemless pole beans, cucumbers, and tomatoes. Because of standardized management and strong market demand, Wei Jin struck his first pot of gold that year: a net income of more than 30,000 yuan. The next year, Wei Jin's stemless bean planting area reached 3 mu. Because the stemless beans Wei Jin grew were of good quality and had low pesticide residues, they often sold for two mao higher than the market price. Even so, Wei Jin's stemless beans were still in short supply.

In the second half of 2007, the Pianpo Township government introduced button mushroom cultivation technology through investment promotion and promoted it to farmers. "Button mushroom cultivation follows a 'company + base + farmer' business model. The township Party committee and government strongly support this emerging planting industry, but because the villagers were relatively unfamiliar with this project at the time, no one dared to grow them." Tang Yingjie, director of the Labor Security Office of Pianpo Township, told reporters that after Wei Jin discovered this opportunity to get rich, he immediately contacted the government to learn how to grow button mushrooms.

Building sheds, stacking materials... After returning from training, Wei Jin invested more than 50,000 yuan, contracted 8 mu of land, and, under the guidance of professional technicians, began growing button mushrooms. Building sheds and stacking materials required a large amount of labor, so Wei Jin hired more than 20 surplus laborers in the village by the day.

"If you dare to plant eight mu, I can try planting some too." Under Wei Jin's demonstration and leadership, more than 30 farming households in the village suddenly planted more than 50 mu of button mushrooms. Although several thousand jin of button mushrooms were lost because of a freezing disaster rarely seen in a century, Wei Jin still made a profit of 2,000 yuan per mu of button mushrooms.

Because of the impact of the freezing weather, Wei Jin began switching to greenhouse cultivation in 2008. "As a pilot, I invested more than ten thousand yuan and first planted one mu. Although the shelf-style cultivation method costs a bit more, the yield is also a bit higher." Wei Jin said that if the pilot succeeds, he will further expand the scale of greenhouse button mushroom cultivation.

In February 2009, while helping a boss from Longli haul fruit, he discovered that the local soil was especially suitable for planting kiwi, pear trees, and bayberry, so he immediately contracted more than 20 mu of land. "I planted 10 mu of bayberry, five or six mu of pear trees, and 4 mu of kiwi. The bayberry has already borne fruit, and the kiwi and pear trees will be ready to eat in three years." Wei Jin said happily. Next, he also wants to develop livestock breeding, raising 100 pigs on hand, forming a new model in which pig and cattle breeding drives mushroom cultivation, making full use of pollution-free farmyard manure to cultivate green, pollution-free button mushrooms.