Others sell strawberries, she sells picking: how does a strawberry-picking experience make money?
"Strawberry Xishi" Ji Jingyan.
Which scripture is "Strawberry Xishi" reciting?
On February 15, in Wachang Village, Caochi Town, Jianyang City, under the early spring sunshine, the bright red strawberries looked especially fresh and tender. Ji Jingyan, chairman of the Jianyang City Lixing Planting Professional Cooperative, was inspecting conditions in her own strawberry field. With fewer tourists coming to pick after the festival, she began planning to improve the irrigation equipment in the field and intended to build a self-contained water storage system.
This water storage system was Ji Jingyan's own idea. Though she now speaks about farm work with great fluency, three years ago she was still an "outsider." In 2011, after graduating from Sichuan University Jincheng College, Ji Jingyan worked in sales, as a host, and as a beauty consultant. Although she could have taken over the family business, she ultimately chose to go bare-faced and plunge headlong into the soil, growing strawberries.
Speaking of her entrepreneurial idea, Ji Jingyan said every young person has a "boss dream" in their heart. "Land is also a kind of resource. As long as you manage it well, there will definitely be returns." In 2013, after "drifting" outside for two years, Ji Jingyan seized the opportunity of the village two committees' term change and was successfully elected secretary of the Wachang Village Party branch. She then contracted 60 mu of land and began her entrepreneurial journey, becoming the "Strawberry Xishi" in everyone's eyes.
Wachang Village has 160 mu of strawberry planting area. After investigating, Ji Jingyan found that although the village had grown strawberries for more than ten years, there was no innovation: planting techniques were backward, varieties were limited, sales methods were traditional, and strawberry profits were greatly reduced. She wanted to integrate the scattered smallholder resources, "turning the whole village into an ecological agriculture experience-style scenic area, where tourists can experience picking and can also adopt a plot of land to cultivate themselves, turning agriculture into tourism and services."
In the first year of growing strawberries, Ji Jingyan conducted experiments on her contracted land and insisted on pollution-free cultivation. The yield per mu of strawberries was only one-third that of other farmers, but by selling "picking," the sales price was double that of other farmers. In 2014, Ji Jingyan joined with large growers to establish the village's first strawberry planting cooperative. Last winter and this spring, through tourist experience picking, the village's sales volume was expected to surpass wholesale. The average selling price of winter strawberries was about 15 yuan per jin, and the income from the village's 160 mu of winter strawberries was nearly 2 million yuan.
At the start of the new year, the cooperative began promoting organic fertilizer, and more and more farmers were selling "picking." For easier management, the village uniformly made advertising boards: "Spring strawberries are gradually coming to market. Management must keep up to ensure everyone wants to come back after picking."