Vegetable inventor Hu Guohua digs a road to prosperity out of the soil

Hu Guohua introduces the taro sprouts he cultivated (photographed on March 25).

Hu Guohua carefully inspects the growth of the taro sprouts (photographed on March 25).

Hu Guohua shows the taro mother of a special variety he cultivated that can grow taro sprouts (photographed on March 25).

Hu Guohua inspects the growth of the taro sprouts in the field (photographed on March 25).

Hu Guohua, 53, is an ordinary farmer in Hongling Village, Xiaogang Town, Dongxiang County, Jiangxi. Thanks to new vegetable varieties he cultivated himself, he has become a modestly wealthy man with an annual income of one million yuan. Hu Guohua originally worked as a migrant worker elsewhere. After returning to his hometown in 2009, he felt that simply growing crops was not worth much, so he began studying vegetable cultivation on his own. In 2013, Hu Guohua found a business opportunity in taro mothers that others discarded. This kind of taro mother, which tastes bitter and coarse, was previously used only to grow taro, but the taro mother Hu Guohua cultivated can grow golden, tender and delicious taro sprouts. To open up sales channels, the quick-witted Hu Guohua also sent the taro sprouts to South China University of Technology for testing, and found that they are rich in amino acids and glutamic acid that are beneficial to the human body. Hu Guohua's taro sprouts can now reach an annual output of 120,000 jin, sold to many counties and cities in Jiangxi as well as Zhejiang, Hunan and other places, at about 10 yuan per jin, with an annual income of one million yuan.