Learn flower-growing techniques well, Tao Heng returns home to achieve prosperity together

"When sowing magnolia seeds, first soak the fruits with red outer skins in cold water and rub them clean, then remove the outer skins completely, take out the seeds and dry them, bury them in sand, and then you can sow them." At just past 9 o'clock on March 1, at the Songxin Flowers and Trees Planting Farm in Banan District, Tao Heng, a young woman born in the 1980s, was preparing to sow magnolia seeds together with her employees.

In this fine season for spring sowing and spring planting, Tao Heng's busy figure could be seen everywhere across the planting base, because at every stage of flower growing, Tao Heng had to instruct the employees in mixing base fertilizer, preparing wet trays, and so on. For Tao Heng, good sowing meant more high-quality seedlings could be cultivated, and only when the seedlings grew well could more commercial saplings be produced.

Tao Heng was born in Yakou Group, Guantang Village, Jielong Town, Banan District. She graduated from Chongqing United Staff College in 1999, worked as a substitute teacher, served as a village family-planning officer, and also did sales work when she went out to work. Yet it was precisely this ordinary rural young woman born in the 1980s who, after enduring the hardships of studying, working away from home, and starting a business, tempered a sense of courage and responsibility and opened up a path of entrepreneurship built on self-reliance rather than waiting and depending on others.

In 2007, Tao Heng worked at a landscaping company. From running production bases to selling flowers and nursery stock, she gained a comprehensive understanding of growing flowers and trees, and she realized that with economic and social development, citizens' expectations for a beautiful environment and green homes were growing ever higher, giving rise to a large demand for nursery stock. Yet in her hometown, there was still quite a lot of idle land, which gradually planted the idea of growing flowers and trees herself.

"At the time I thought, why not put this idle land to use and grow flowers and nursery stock?" Tao Heng said. She was still young then, full of drive, and acted as soon as she decided. In 2009, she gave up her job in the city. After discussing it with her husband Zhang Zhongwei, she scraped together 50,000 yuan from relatives and friends and returned home to start a business, establishing the Banan District Songxin Flowers and Trees Planting Farm and beginning to grow flowers and nursery stock.

"If you don't understand flower-growing techniques, learn from forestry experts." Tao Heng said that at the beginning she did not understand the techniques, and the saplings she planted died one after another, which made her realize the importance of planting techniques. She did not lose heart. Instead, she bought many books on forestry, studied the techniques of growing flowers and nursery stock, discussed and experimented together with the workers she hired and local farmers, and also invited agricultural experts from the town to diagnose the problems. Gradually, Tao Heng went from an outsider who knew only the surface to a "landscaping expert" with a full command of techniques such as raising seedlings, pruning, and disease prevention.

In June 2011, Tao Heng and her husband applied to set up a micro-enterprise, and the government subsidized her with 50,000 yuan at the maximum rate, solving the couple's funding problem. With this money, the couple contracted more than 80 mu of land, introduced high-quality osmanthus trees, goldenrain trees, camphor trees, and others from other places, and expanded the planting base to more than 200 mu.

"Wealth for one person is not true wealth; wealth for all is true wealth." As someone who had once worked away from home, she knew well that it was not easy for fellow villagers to earn money. Therefore, as the planting scale of the base expanded, when recruiting workers she specifically hired left-behind women and elderly people who still had some capacity for labor, helping them ease their financial pressure.

Last year, Tao Heng once again expanded the scale of the planting base, bringing the base area to 500 mu. This time, she set her sights farther ahead and began building a family farm, planting fruits such as plums, peaches, and watermelons, raising freshwater fish, and developing chicken farming under the forest. Today, the base has already driven more than 50 neighboring households of villagers to jointly develop planting and breeding businesses. By signing breeding and purchasing agreements, a large-scale operating community has gradually formed locally, leading many fellow villagers to achieve prosperity together.

Tao Heng thus also achieved a elevation of her life's value. She has been successively rated as a "Banan Youth May Fourth Red-Banner Pacesetter" and a district-level "Outstanding League Cadre," and in 2015, Tao Heng also received the honorary title of "National Outstanding Migrant Worker."