Zhu Lian'gen: The Leader Who Guided Pingshan Farmers to Prosperity

Zhu Lian'gen is a member of the Party General Branch of Pingshan Village, Guantangqiao Subdistrict, a village cadre now past sixty, but he has another identity as well: chairman of the Runzhou "Yipinhong" Strawberry Professional Cooperative.

Since graduating from high school, Zhu Lian'gen has worked in agriculture without a break for more than 40 years. "In the past, the village mainly grew wheat, rice and rapeseed; the farming structure was single, economic returns were low, farmers' incomes were small and their enthusiasm was low." From the earliest days of growing hybrid rice to raise per-mu yields, to later growing fruit and greenhouse vegetables to increase net income, out of his dedication to agriculture, Zhu Lian'gen has never stopped searching for ways to help farmers prosper over the years.

In 2003, his work unit sent Zhu Lian'gen to Jurong for a study visit. "I got fired up right then and there. How did their strawberries bring in such big returns?" Zhu Lian'gen discovered that Jurong's greenhouse strawberries were large and delicious, and farmers growing them could earn a net income of 8000 yuan per mu per year! "That's more than 10 times what we make!" This time, old Zhu was moved; he wanted to carry out reform!

Once the direction was clear, Zhu Lian'gen made visits far and wide. By chance, he met strawberry-growing experts from Zhejiang. The new strawberry varieties they grew had high yields, large fruit, bright color and good flavor, with broad market prospects, but "a lack of land" was the one shortcoming. Old Zhu thought to himself: the village has land, so why not invite them in?

They hit it off immediately! A year later, these new strawberry varieties sold out as soon as they hit the market. Old Zhu did the math: a net income of 15000 yuan per mu! This delighted him, so he called the surrounding growers together for a meeting and took the opportunity to establish the Runzhou Yipinhong Strawberry Professional Cooperative.

"The first crop of strawberries is the best and also the most profitable, selling for 40 yuan a jin!" Zhu Lian'gen said that through technological innovation, the strawberry yield per mu has reached 3500 jin, of which the first crop accounts for around eight or nine hundred jin per mu. The visible returns gave Zhu Lian'gen full confidence. What made old Zhu even happier was the increase in local villagers' regular income. "Now the land rent per mu has risen from 1200 yuan at the beginning to 2000 yuan, and the labor freed up can go out to work." At present, the average annual income of farmers in Pingshan Village has reached 28000 yuan.

According to Zhu Lian'gen's thinking, there are actually quite a few ways to make money from growing strawberries, and raising strawberry seedlings is a good channel for increasing income. "After the strawberries leave the market, many growers start raising seedlings, and selling seedlings brings decent returns. The current price is already 0.8 yuan to 1 yuan per plant, and 1 mu of land can grow about 6000 plants, which is worth quite a lot."

At present, this strawberry cooperative has won more than 20 honors at the national, provincial, municipal and district levels, with a planting area of more than 120 mu and a net income of 35000 yuan per mu per year. Although it has already achieved such results, old Zhu is still not satisfied. He plans to further standardize the cooperative's development, advancing toward the goal of "unified management, unified seed supply, unified planting and unified sales" to help more farmers increase their incomes and prosper.