Anfu disabled young man Wang Jianwen leads bamboo farmers to common prosperity

In the vast, verdant bamboo sea of Zhangzhuang Township, Anfu County, one often sees a distinctive figure, because his posture as he climbs over mountains and ridges is always a limping, uneven gait that is impossible to forget; yet his readiness to help others is wholehearted and commands deep respect. Regardless of fatigue, he diligently shares the "secret recipe" for high-yield moso bamboo with the broad community of bamboo farmers, and strives by every means to lead farmers in the remote mountains to common prosperity. Everyone vividly calls him the "instructor" of high-yield moso bamboo and the "navigator" of the people's path to prosperity. He is Wang Jianwen, a disabled young man from Zhangzhuang Village, Zhangzhuang Township, and chairman of the Wuming Moso Bamboo Professional Cooperative.

Thirty-seven years ago, Wang Jianwen was born in a small, remote mountain village. In the midst of a happy, carefree childhood, Wang Jianwen unfortunately contracted a serious illness, and because a rural doctor gave him an improper injection, his right leg muscles atrophied and he became disabled. Because of his own disability, he later chose to study medicine. In 1996, after graduating from Yichun Health School, Wang Jianwen went alone to Shenzhen to work. He served as a doctor and engaged in medicinal materials distribution. Through several years of effort, Wang Jianwen accumulated a sum of wealth, gained the achievements of hard striving, tasted the sweetness of self-reliance, and gained even more confidence in starting a business.

In 2002, Wang Jianwen thought of the abundant moso bamboo resources in his hometown, which were very suitable for development and income generation, and believed that with careful cultivation and meticulous management, there would surely be reliable returns. So he brought back to his hometown the more than 1.3 million yuan in funds he had saved, contracted 2,200 mu of poor-quality moso bamboo forest in the village, and began his bamboo forest venture.

Wang Jianwen knew well that for moso bamboo to be high-yield, technology is crucial. By seeking advice from technicians at the local forestry workstation and the Zhangzhuang branch of the Mingyueshan Forest Farm, actively participating in county and township moso bamboo high-yield technical training, and subscribing at his own expense to relevant science and technology newspapers and magazines, he quickly mastered a complete set of moso bamboo high-yield cultivation techniques. Through hands-on practice, he finally turned 2,200 mu of low-yield moso bamboo forest into an enviable high-yield forest. The standing bamboo stock of 161,000 culms that year has become more than 370,000 culms; the average standing bamboo density per mu has increased from less than 80 culms to more than 180 culms; the average diameter at breast height has also grown from 8 cm to 10 to 14 cm; and the annual output of standard bamboo has risen from less than 20,000 culms to more than 50,000 culms.

Just as Wang Jianwen's bamboo forest venture was winning its first victory and he was full of confidence to unfold an even grander plan, Anfu County fully launched a key project to accelerate the development of the bamboo industry. The county government issued the "Decision on Accelerating the Development of the Bamboo Industry", established a bamboo industry development fund, and, through implementing bamboo characteristic industry projects, increased funding support for low-yield moso bamboo improvement and bamboo forest road construction. This series of policies and measures supporting the development of the moso bamboo industry greatly encouraged Wang Jianwen.

In order to achieve the goal of making the moso bamboo industry bigger and stronger, in recent years Wang Jianwen has worked to expand his bamboo forest operating area while concentrating on building two good "roads": one is a mountain road for moso bamboo development, and the other is the road to prosperity that leads fellow villagers out of poverty together. By 2005, the moso bamboo forest mountain land he had acquired through purchase and leasing had expanded to more than 5,000 mu; he successively borrowed 500,000 yuan in loans, widened more than 10 km of simple road in the forest area, and paved 5 km of it; from 2014 to the present, with the support of county finance, forestry, disabled persons' federation and other departments, he has also built 33 km of bamboo forest roads, optimizing transportation conditions for moso bamboo development. On this basis, Wang Jianwen then immediately built his second "road" - establishing a moso bamboo professional cooperative.

In 2011, Wang Jianwen led the establishment of the Wuming Moso Bamboo Professional Cooperative, which took in a total of 18 moso bamboo cultivation, production and business households from the whole township, with more than 3 million yuan in membership funds, and more than 10 disabled-person households joining free of charge. That year, the cooperative joined with processing enterprise owners to invest 600,000 yuan jointly and set up a moso bamboo deep-processing base in Zhangzhuang Village. At present, the cooperative's operating area is 15,000 mu. In the past two years, the cooperative has completed 5,500 mu of low-yield moso bamboo improvement and cultivated 200 mu of high-yield moso bamboo demonstration forest. At the same time, it has carried out deep cooperation with bamboo enterprises in the county, further strengthening the cooperative's capacity for collective development.

After several years of effort, Wang Jianwen has not only brought considerable tangible benefits to local people in their pursuit of prosperity, but has also won gratifying honors for himself, having been named a "county-wide model of returning-home entrepreneurship" and one of the "county-wide top ten promising young people in forestry and fruit prosperity".