Young people who stay on the land become leaders in escaping poverty and achieving prosperity
●Deng Weishan
Since the reform and opening up, in the wave of rural young people "going to the cities to work," a very small number of young people have stayed on their patch of fertile land, seeking opportunities for development and leading villagers onto the path of escaping poverty and achieving prosperity. During the two years I worked in Liangtang Village, Bao'an Town, Lianzhou City, I discovered a young person who has stayed on the land. His honest face shows firmness, and his calm tone reveals modesty. He has no grand words, yet he has led more than 200 households of villagers onto the path of escaping poverty and achieving prosperity. He is the protagonist of this article: Zeng Weiji, deputy secretary of the Party branch of Liangtang Village, Bao'an Town, Lianzhou City.
When it comes to Zeng Weiji, everyone in Liangtang Village, Bao'an Town, Lianzhou City knows him. His fame comes from the continuous expansion of his seed production scale. Zeng Weiji is not yet 40 years old. He returned to farming in his hometown before finishing junior high school. His young companions urged him to go out to work and earn money. He said: "If we young people all leave, who will watch over this beautiful land and water?" He declined his companions' invitation and quietly thought to himself: How can I change the poor appearance of this mountain village? Because he was young and inexperienced, at first he did not even know how to cultivate seeds. During the slack farming seasons, he went from village to village and from household to household, learning planting techniques from old farmers. In the late 1990s, the Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences set up a seed trial site in Lianzhou City, so he ran to Lianzhou City to ask the academy's experts about seed cultivation and planting techniques. The experts from the Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences were also very happy to see a young person come. They taught him planting techniques hand by hand and gave him seeds for free to take back and plant. Zeng Weiji took the seeds back and planted them according to the methods the experts had taught, but the harvest was not great, so he kept running to Lianzhou City to consult the experts from the Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences. After many visits, the experts from the Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences felt that this young man was eager to learn and diligent, and they encouraged him to mobilize the farmers in the village to cultivate seeds together. Under the guidance, help and encouragement of the seed cultivation experts from the Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Zeng Weiji threw himself into the cause of seed cultivation with full confidence.
Zeng Weiji is from Liangting Village, Liangtang Village Committee. He knows the problems and advantages of the village. Those at home are all older villagers and young children, and most make a living by farming. Liangting Village has a lot of arable land and is suitable for planting. The villagers are hardworking and simple, but they suffer because they have not found the right path out of poverty. He hoped to rely on breeding technology to organize the villagers to develop the seed production industry together, unite the strength of the masses, and change the way Liangting Village villagers increase their income. With the technology for cultivating seeds, Zeng Weiji actively mobilized the villagers to produce seeds together. At first, the villagers thought: a young man who does not even know how to cultivate rice, how could he produce seeds? Holding a skeptical attitude, no villagers produced seeds with him. Indeed, if he could not do it well himself, who would believe that seed production could also help them escape poverty and become prosperous? For this reason, he himself strictly followed the seed production techniques taught by the experts to cultivate seeds. That year, the income from one mu of seed production exceeded 10,000 yuan, which startled the whole of Liangting Village. That year, more than a dozen households in Liangting Village joined in breeding. The increase in breeding households also strengthened Zeng Weiji's confidence, and he quickly reached a cooperation agreement with Lianzhou Fengyu Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd. The signing of this agreement also gave the villagers of this village and neighboring villages hope, and they asked one after another to join in breeding. By the end of this year, the bred varieties had expanded from the original bitter gourd and long beans to more than 10 varieties including loofah, corn and pumpkin seed production, and had spread from Liangting Village to the other 11 villager groups in Liangtang. Villagers became breeding households one after another. At present, the vegetable seed production planting area has reached more than 400 mu, the number of growing households has reached 200, and the economic returns have reached more than 3 million yuan.
He firmly believes that the land can produce fruit and can realize ideals. Seeing the joyful mood of the villagers when breeding, Zeng Weiji felt incomparably happy in his heart. It is precisely because Zeng Weiji considered the interests of the villagers that when the Party members elected the village Party branch secretary, all Party members cast a sacred vote for him. He was elected secretary of the Party branch of Liangting Village, Liangtang Village Committee, and deputy secretary of the Party branch of Liangtang Village, Bao'an Town. In 2010, Zeng Weiji was rated as a major specialized household in agricultural industrialization economy in Lianzhou City; in 2011, he was rated by the Communist Youth League of Lianzhou City as a rural youth spark leader.
Liangtang Village, Bao'an Town, Lianzhou City, is a poverty-stricken village supported as a priority by Guangdong Province. Zeng Weiji has been able to stay on this patch of fertile land and open a path out of poverty and toward prosperity for himself and for the villagers, which is worthy of praise. In order to better and more effectively lead the villagers out of poverty and toward prosperity, and feeling that his current knowledge is not enough, Zeng Weiji enrolled in undergraduate studies in rural administrative management. Seeing the villagers move out of poverty and toward prosperity because of seed production, and encouraged by the resident village officials, he has an even greater ideal: to build a breeding and cultivation base in Liangtang Village, so that more young people can stay and become prosperous.