Radishes washed for 150,000 yuan: Farmer Li Cheng of Qitai boosts income in the winter slack season

Vegetables grown in autumn are stored until winter, then washed clean before being sold.** Li Cheng, a farmer from Nanhu Village in Gucheng Township, Qitai County, cleverly exploited the time gap by storing and preserving vegetables, earning a net income of 150,000 yuan in a single winter.

On the afternoon of December 28, this writer visited the vegetable washing workshop at Li Cheng's home, where he and his employees were busy washing radishes ready for market. Speaking about using the winter slack season to store vegetables and sell them out of season to increase income, Li Cheng was full of confidence.

Li Cheng told this writer: "For the past two years I have mainly been washing radishes, processing, purchasing and storing, growing, and washing - doing this line of work during the winter slack season. On the one hand it has increased my own income; on the other hand it has also helped the villagers around me and in my own village get rich, and brought them good ideas for making money."

Li Cheng is 37 years old this year and is an outstanding veteran hand at farming in the village. In recent years, like other villagers, the autumn and winter vegetables he grew each year were affected by factors such as the market and climate, so vegetable prices fluctuated, and sometimes he could barely even cover costs. If autumn and winter vegetables then went unsold, most of the radishes and other autumn and winter vegetables in every household in the village rotted in the fields. Li Cheng saw this and fretted over it. After conducting market research, he found that vegetable preservation and washing had very good market prospects, and in the three eastern counties of Changji Prefecture it was still the only such business. Last year he invested 500,000 yuan to build one 2,000-square-meter spring and winter vegetable storage and preservation warehouse, bought one vegetable washing machine, and purchased and stored more than 300 tons of radishes for out-of-season sales, mainly green radishes and carrots. At present his winter vegetables not only occupy 90% of the market in Mulei, Qitai and Jimsar, but are also sold to Urumqi, Changji and other places, with a net income of 150,000 yuan in a single winter. He not only increased his own income, but also helped farmers in his village earn more by working for him.

Liu Guiqin is a villager from Nanhu Livestock Village in Gucheng Township. This year she used the winter slack season to work at Li Cheng's vegetable preservation warehouse, adding to her income right at her doorstep, and she is very happy.

Liu Guiqin said: "I have been working here for 2 years already. Before this factory existed, during the winter slack season we would just organize some dancing in the village and there was nothing else to do, or we would make shoes at home, and we had no idea of earning extra income. Since Li Cheng's vegetable preservation warehouse opened, we earn at least several thousand yuan in a winter."

Zhu Guorong, Party branch secretary of Nanhu Livestock Village in Gucheng Township, Qitai County, said: "Our Nanhu Village's Li Cheng does this deep-processing washing of radishes. It can be said that in Qitai County such small businesses and small family workshops are still relatively few. As our village committee, we will increase our support in the future. During the winter slack season, this workshop of his, first, raises his economic income, and second, drives the villagers around us to earn more by working, and also gives our villagers a certain way out for employment."

Speaking of his plans for the future, Li Cheng hopes that with government support he can, on the one hand, expand his scale, and on the other hand register a trademark and sell the products after packaging, basically meeting the demand of Urumqi, Changji and the three eastern counties, and further making the carrot industry bigger and stronger.

Li Cheng told this writer with full confidence: "I will strive to make our carrot industry bigger and stronger in the future, supplying carrots and various vegetables to our whole county throughout the year, so that people throughout the county can eat vegetables that are safe and reassuring, and strive to produce 500 or 600 tons, and up to a thousand tons, of carrots every year."