Vegetable King Leads Jishui Villagers onto the Road to Prosperity

Chen Jisheng (first from left) instructs villagers on using a thermometer to control early vegetable seedlings

The cold winter has just passed, and many plots of land have become idle winter fields, but in one man's eyes, idle winter fields have become golden land. The early vegetable seedlings he cultivates in the idle winter fields, such as peppers, eggplants, and cucumbers, are growing vigorously and are about to be marketed. He is Chen Jisheng, the "Vegetable King" of Zhushan Village, Baisha Town, Jishui County, who has been rated as a national modern agricultural science and technology demonstration household for four consecutive years.

Zhushan Village has abundant water sources and fertile soil, making it a good place for growing vegetables. With the inherent diligence of a farmer and a great interest in growing crops, Chen Jisheng began growing various vegetables and cash crops here 20 years ago. Radishes, cabbages, peppers, eggplants, peanuts, sesame, sugarcane, watermelons, and even cut melons, gourds and other crops that others did not grow, he has planted them all. During this period, he participated many times in visits and training organized by agricultural technology departments at the provincial, municipal, and county levels, and by combining this with his own practical experience, he gradually developed a unique method for growing vegetables and cash crops.

He also makes full use of the time gap, emphasizing the word "early," turning winter leisure into winter busyness, building greenhouses, and cultivating more than 4 mu of early-maturing pepper, eggplant and other vegetable seedlings each year. After the early-maturing pepper, eggplant and other vegetable seedlings are sold, he adopts the method of intercropping crops, interplanting peppers, eggplants, edamame, gourds and other crops in sugarcane fields. He is especially optimistic about the word "late," growing late-maturing watermelons, and by the National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival seasons, his late-maturing watermelons come onto the market in large quantities. As a result, the economic benefit per mu of his land exceeds 50,000 yuan.

Chen Jisheng does not forget his fellow villagers after becoming wealthy. He often teaches planting techniques to villagers without reservation in farmhouses and at the edges of fields, explains management methods, and leads villagers to grow various vegetables and cash crops together. Under his influence and leadership, the villagers of the whole village have now changed their previous pattern of growing only rice to large-scale scientific cultivation of vegetables and cash crops, with a vegetable planting area alone of more than 1,000 mu, and economic income increasing several times over. "Under Chen Jisheng's leadership, every household in the village grows vegetables. No matter what technical problems the farmers have, they all come to Chen Jisheng. He always comes whenever called, helps solve them, teaches us techniques, and tells us how to manage. Now, just from growing early pepper seedlings alone, one mu of land can earn more than 30,000 yuan. Chen Jisheng truly deserves to be called the Vegetable King, and he is truly the leading goose on our road to wealth." Recently, when villager Chen Jixiang was interviewed, his praise for Chen Jisheng was fully expressed in his words.