Bi Niansheng focuses on grape growing and leads everyone to prosperity together

Bi Niansheng

Profile:

Bi Niansheng was born in the Year of the Dragon, and after the New Year he will be 65 sui. The title on his business card is owner of Manyuanxiang Family Farm in Maoshan Town, Jurong City, and his farm is located beside Jumao Avenue.

During the "12th Five-Year Plan" period, Old Bi's family planting business developed well. Now, Old Bi and his wife are busy inside and outside the farm every day.

Old Bi has made this resolution: in 3 years, build the farm into a high-quality family farm with the most complete range of grape varieties and the best economic returns in southern Jiangsu.

Robust and talkative Old Bi walks around the family farm in winter, sits for a while in the sightseeing greenhouse, and tells us one by one the stories related to grapes.

After failing at growing jujubes, he switched to grapes

Bi Niansheng joined the armed militia in 1971, took part in national defense construction at the Nanjing 4929 construction site, carried out 3 years of mass line education in Xingxiang and other places, served as village party secretary in Dingzhuang from 1984 to 1994, and later also went into business.

In 1995 Bi Niansheng went to Shandong for an inspection, saw that Shandong jujubes were quite good, and came back to contract 50 mu of barren hills to plant jujubes. Because the climate was unsuitable, the Shandong jujubes grew poorly, and the nearly 200,000 yuan invested was all lost. Everyone in Dingzhuang knows about this.

After failing at growing jujubes, Bi Niansheng switched to Kyoho grapes, and because everyone was growing Kyoho, the economic returns were relatively low. In 1998 he asked the then model worker Fang Jisheng to help him buy some new varieties from elsewhere, and dug up the Kyoho vines that had grown for two years to plant the new varieties. The new variety saplings grew for two years but bore no fruit. He dug them up again and went to Zhangjiagang to select many excellent varieties cultivated in greenhouses. After several years of screening, he finally settled on varieties suitable for cultivation in the park and welcomed by the market.

Not a year without construction in recent years

In the most recent 5 years, Bi Niansheng has year by year dug up the old Kyoho vines, rebuilt them into multi-span greenhouse facilities, and planted new grape varieties in the greenhouses. With more grape varieties, the picking season has been extended from July to October each year. When others have not yet started selling grapes, he has already begun selling; when others have sold out their grapes, he can still continue selling. Five years ago, his annual income from growing grapes was more than 100,000; this year it is more than 200,000, and in two years they will strive for more. He likes to do things, and doing them well gives him a sense of satisfaction, so in these four or five years there has not been a year when he did not carry out construction on the farm.

Now, the main grape varieties on the farm include Summer Black, Kyoho, Beauty Finger, Gold Finger, Red Rosa, White Rosa, Red Balado, Red Globe, Giant Rose, Shine Muscat, and others. The Summer Black, Beauty Finger, Rose and others familiar to Zhenjiang residents are all available here. If a box of grapes is sold with different colors and varieties combined, it will be more popular.

This year the Municipal Agriculture Committee and the Maoshan Town government promoted the Internet, e-commerce and other channels to help ordinary people sell grapes, SF Express also provided door-to-door service, and WIFI has already covered the entire park. Although Bi Niansheng is already over 60 years old, he has also learned WeChat and often posts his high-quality grapes online so that more people can see them. This year his family sold grapes online through SF Express, not only to surrounding areas such as Nanjing, Suzhou, Wuxi and Changzhou, but also far to Heilongjiang, Guizhou, Beijing, Tianjin and other places. This year SF Express also gave away outer packaging for mailing grapes and provided scheduled door-to-door service every day. Bi Niansheng believes that in addition to tourist picking, online sales are also an important channel for us to increase returns in the future.

We must increase income and become prosperous together with everyone

This year Bi Niansheng went with large growers to Taiwan, China and Japan to inspect and learn grape-growing techniques. He wants to plant the entire vineyard with premium grapes and, through 3 years of effort, build the family farm into a high-quality family farm integrating picking, sightseeing, fishing, dining, and composite planting and breeding. By then, when tourists come to the farm, they can fish and pick vegetables, and also taste the chickens, ducks and geese here.

Farmers in Taiwan, China and Japan are still busy in their seventies and eighties, which also gives Bi Niansheng more motivation and determination. The care and support of the Municipal Agriculture Committee and Maoshan Town leaders are his strong backing for steady progress. Last year, their farm was rated as a Zhenjiang City family farm and received a 50,000 yuan award. Now every household in Dingzhuang grows grapes, with the smallest plots at five or six mu, and per capita annual income of 20,000 to 30,000.

Bi Niansheng wants to take the lead in facility construction, variety improvement, economic returns, and freeing the mind, and to increase income and become prosperous together with everyone.