A successful and inspiring story of a Sichuan migrant worker returning home to start a business

--He served in the army, ran a factory, and finally picked up "golden ingots" in a watermelon field

Xin Guohui is from Dayan Village, Guobei Town, Dongxing District, Neijiang City, and is 47 years old this year. More than twenty years ago, he had three years of military experience. "Before joining the army, I had been working in Xuzhou, and after finishing my service I also returned to Xuzhou to work for a few years," Xin Guohui said.

Later, because he wanted to start a business, Xin Guohui returned to his hometown of Neijiang and began running a factory and doing farming. "The factory was a joint-stock operation. I invested some money, but I was not very involved in management. Later, because the factory's performance was poor, it was shut down." The factory he co-founded with friends did not bring Xin Guohui any profit; instead, he lost money.

"Later on, around 1996, I thought of farming." Xin Guohui began raising pigs. In the first two years, market live pork could sell for more than 6 yuan per jin, which brought him some profit. But afterward, because of the decline in the pork market, pig farming became increasingly loss-making.

Because he had once served in the army, Xin Guohui had always had a spirit of perseverance and fearlessness of hardship in his character. Although his previous business ventures had all ended in failure, this did not make him stop pushing forward.

In 2007, through extensive prior investigation and research, he learned that Neijiang's market had an insufficient supply of watermelons. "At that time, many watermelons in the Neijiang market were still purchased from places like Gansu and brought back to sell." Therefore, Deng Gang began growing watermelons in his hometown.

Hardship along the way, persistence finally brings the "ingots"

Xin Guohui also encountered many difficulties in the process of growing watermelons. Because he had previously lost money in running a factory and raising pigs, insufficient funds were the first problem to solve when growing watermelons.

"I asked relatives to pool money together," Xin Guohui said. At the time, he had tens of thousands of yuan in startup capital himself, and on top of that he borrowed 140,000 yuan from relatives. In the end, he invested more than 200,000 yuan and contracted more than 20 mu of land to grow watermelons.

Sowing at the beginning of the year, the watermelons that set fruit in May began to reach the market. However, things did not go smoothly. "In the first two years, I did not understand the techniques, so the watermelon yield was low, and the fruits were small." In the first two years, the watermelons grown by Deng Gang were in a loss-making state. Xin Guohui said, "Later, I gradually mastered the techniques, kept improving, and after learning pest and disease control, the watermelon yield changed greatly."

Now, Xin Guohui's watermelon field has grown from the initial more than 20 mu to the current more than 400 mu as a consolidated rural professional cooperative. Deng Gang said, "After the watermelon returns gradually improved, relatives and nearby villagers saw the profits and also wanted to grow watermelons, so the Jinong Planting Professional Cooperative of Dongxing District, Neijiang was established, and Xin Guohui serves as the chairman of the cooperative. Besides helping teach techniques to the cooperative's villagers, he is usually also busy with watermelon sales and other matters."

Xin Guohui said that the return per mu of watermelon land is now around 8,000 yuan, and the returns are stable. Xin Guohui introduced that at the planting base now, besides watermelons, he also grows Chinese yam and grapes. Next, with the government's help, he also plans to grow dragon fruit, blueberries, and so on, so that while becoming wealthy himself, the villagers can also increase their returns together with him.