Developing an Ecological Family Farm: Li Cuiying Leads Villagers onto the Road to Prosperity

"Don't let these sweet oranges fool you just because they're small - they taste great, and you definitely won't regret making the trip." At 11 a.m. on March 4, Li Cuiying, the mistress of the Haoyu Family Farm in Gaodong Village, Baiping Township, Wusheng County, was busy weighing oranges for tourists who had come to buy them. A reporter observed that the three full bags of sweet oranges on the electronic scale weighed a full 50 jin.

"Last year the orchard produced nearly 100,000 jin of sweet oranges, but it still couldn't meet the buying demand of visitors. Now sweet orange sales have entered the final stage, yet quite a few visitors still come to the door every day to buy them." After seeing the tourists off, Li Cuiying happily told the reporter that last year her farm had a "bumper harvest," earning more than 300,000 yuan from sweet oranges alone, and also sending more than 2,000 fattened pigs to market.

It is understood that in 2004, Li Cuiying and her husband returned to their hometown to start a business, develop an ecological family farm, and lead the villagers onto the road to prosperity. She has also been awarded honorary titles including provincial "March 8th Red Banner Pacesetter," "Woman Heroic Achiever," and "National Model Worker."

To Discipline Her Children Well, She Gave Up a High-Salary Job and Returned Home

In row upon row of single-row pens, the pigs looked charmingly naive. "At first, I didn't plan to start a business. I just wanted to do a little business and take good care of my two children." While showing the reporter around the farm, Li Cuiying told the story of her entrepreneurship.

Li Cuiying was born into a rural family in Feilong Town, Wusheng. After graduating from high school in 1985, having failed to get into university, she became a substitute teacher at a local primary school. After marrying, because her son was born, she resigned from the substitute teaching position and cared for her son at home. "The family relied on the harvest from just a few mu of land, and life was always tight. The children needed a lot of money for school, so my husband and I planned to go out to work."

In 1993, Li Cuiying and her husband entered a food factory in Guangzhou. Because they had no technical skills, their monthly income was not much. "Later, I began to teach myself statistics, and gradually I became the company's statistics supervisor, with a monthly salary of more than 3,000 yuan." Just as Li Cuiying's work was getting better and better, her son began to become rebellious and often skipped class to play video games.

"We went out to work and earn money so our children could make something of themselves. If they don't study seriously, no matter how much money we earn, it's all for nothing." Li Cuiying had originally planned to bring her children to Guangzhou to study, but the children were unwilling. After thinking it over, she and her husband still decided to give up their high-salary jobs and return home.

Precisely because of this, Li Cuiying moved step by step closer to her own path of entrepreneurship.

Forging Ahead Through Setbacks, Her Entrepreneurial Path Gradually Widened

In 2000, after returning home, Li Cuiying cared for her children at home, while her husband worked in the county seat, earning only more than 1,000 yuan a month. "The family's expenses were too high, income could not cover expenses, and every month we were eating into our savings." After discussing it with her husband, Li Cuiying used their savings to open a daily chemicals store in Wusheng County.

After the store opened, business was quite good, and Li Cuiying had planned to keep running it. But in 2004, their village began implementing land transfer, and Li Cuiying sensed a business opportunity in it, giving rise to the idea of returning to the village to contract land for fruit forests. When she told her husband about the idea, the two hit it off immediately and went back to the village to contract more than 70 mu of land.

Leveling the land, pulling weeds, planting trees... Li Cuiying and her husband buried themselves in the fields all day. A few months later, 60 mu of sweet oranges and golden pears were finally planted. "Originally we only planned to develop fruit forests, but seeing that pig prices were high at the time, we wanted to also develop pig farming, and developing an ecological planting-and-breeding model could not only bring in extra income but also save a lot on fertilizer costs." After carefully calculating the accounts, Li Cuiying began borrowing money everywhere to build a pig farm.

However, developing pig farming was far from as smooth as imagined. "Building pens and buying foundation pigs required more than 800,000 in early investment, but it takes at least a year for pigs to be sent to market, and several hundred pigs eat more than 1,000 yuan worth of 'rations' a day." Recalling the hardships at the beginning of her business, Li Cuiying still remembered them vividly. Because she did not understand farming techniques, by the time the first batch of piglets was ready for market, several dozen had already died. "At that time pig prices also fell, so the pigs bought at high prices could only be sold at low prices. We really lost terribly."

It was precisely by constantly forging ahead through setbacks that today Li Cuiying's family farm can send more than 2,000 pigs to market annually, with an annual output value exceeding 4 million yuan. But in her view, this was not the greatest harvest from returning home. "Last year, my son successfully got into a doctoral program, and this year, my daughter will also take the college entrance examination." Seeing that both her son and daughter were doing well, Li Cuiying felt deeply comforted.

Developing a Circular Economy, Benefiting Together with Villagers and Striving for Moderate Prosperity Together

"The reason our family's sweet oranges are in short supply lies right here." Arriving at the sweet orange orchard, Li Cuiying pointed to the long black plastic pipes on the ground and told the reporter that as the scale of farming gradually expanded, manure and sewage treatment had also become a headache for her. "Although dry manure can be collected and treated centrally, there is no way to deal with the sewage. After it is discharged, the stench fills the air, and nearby villagers complain endlessly."

Therefore, Li Cuiying actively sought project funding and, at great expense, invested more than 2 million yuan to build on the farm a 500-cubic-meter anaerobic tank, a 500-cubic-meter gas storage tank, a 1,200-cubic-meter field biogas slurry storage tank, and manure and sewage treatment facilities capable of handling 2 tons of manure per day. "Now, after fermentation treatment, manure and sewage become biogas slurry, which is transported through pipes to the fields. This not only completely solves the pollution problem, but also saves surrounding fruit growers a lot of costs."

Tang Xiuhua, a villager from Gaodong Village, is one of the beneficiaries. "Compared with chemical fertilizers, biogas slurry can not only improve the utilization rate of water and nutrients, but also increase fruit yields." Tang Xiuhua said that her family contracted 20 mu of orchard land, planted with sweet oranges, grapes, pears, and so on. Because they used biogas slurry from Li Cuiying's family farm, they could save more than 10,000 yuan every year. "Because organic fertilizer is used, the fruit tastes good, and many customers come back to buy fruit. Now the family can earn more than 100,000 yuan a year just from selling fruit." Tang Xiuhua beamed with joy.