College Graduate Starts a Farm: Customized Agriculture Achieves Good Results in Planting and Breeding

Ignoring his family's objections, he resolutely threw himself into the "vast farmland" after graduating from university, determined to become a new-generation farm owner and lead his fellow villagers to prosperity. Zeng Fanxing, now thirty years old, is steadily advancing along the agricultural path he has mapped out for himself.

Zeng Fanxing, a young man from Liuyang, is one of the first new farmers in Hunan to join this modern young farm owner training program. A graduate of Hunan Agricultural University, he first made his fortune in the nursery and landscaping industry, then devoted himself wholeheartedly to the world of the "farm estate" he built with his own hands.

Building "Customized" Agriculture

Recently, the reporter met Zeng Fanxing in Changsha. At thirty, he looked somewhat thin, and one could hardly tell that this was a "modern young farm owner" shouldering more than 200 mu of farmland and over 400 mu of mountain forest.

"I first did nursery business with friends from my hometown, but the further I went, the more I felt the competitive pressure was too great, and the market was basically saturated," Zeng Fanxing said. At the end of 2013, he saw the potential of "customized agriculture." With government support, he and an inspection team visited advanced farm bases in Taiwan, China, Guangxi and other places to inspect and learn, and finally decided to focus on agriculture in his hometown and open up the new frontier of "customized agriculture."

Fewer and fewer people in the village are farming the land. Can it be transferred and consolidated? How should it be developed? Where is the market for the agricultural products being produced?

These were the problems surrounding Zeng Fanxing's mind every day. Through 3 months of continuous exploration, learning and bold imagining, and after poring over all kinds of specialized journals and books, a blueprint for a modern farm estate had already unfolded in his mind.

Zeng Fanxing first set up a local agricultural planting and breeding cooperative and invited friends in the industry to help build the platform. "Unlike traditional agricultural production models, 'customized agriculture' places more emphasis on product quality," Zeng Fanxing said. Although he had professional training, he still did not dare be careless about product quality, and returned entirely to original ecological planting and breeding methods. "Take rice, for example. We resolutely do not spray pesticides or apply chemical fertilizers. Although yields have dropped, quality has risen."

Tasting Five-Color Rice Opens Up the "Market"

"I first chose colored rice because I ate it once while traveling in Yunnan and thought it tasted very good. So I thought I would try growing some colored rice myself," Zeng Fanxing explained. There are seven colors of colored rice in total: red, yellow, purple, black, green, brown and white. In the first year, he planted them separately, one color per mu, planting a total of 7 mu. However, perhaps because of the climate, the brown and white colored rice did not grow successfully. But five colors were already enough to satisfy Zeng Fanxing.

So in the second year, he expanded the colored rice planting area to 15 mu, and this year increased it again to 35 mu. Zeng Fanxing adopted the most primitive and most ecological natural farming method, without spraying pesticides or applying chemical fertilizers. Zeng Fanxing said the only fertilizer in the field was the compost produced after straw was returned to the field, and the biggest labor burden was pulling weeds by hand. When he was making the experimental field at the time, he also invited professors from an agricultural university to inspect and give advice. After looking at the experimental field, the professor shook his head and smiled, saying, "Are you growing rice or grass? I'm afraid it won't work without spraying pesticides."

However, Zeng Fanxing still insisted on his customized green, original ecological agriculture. "What we give consumers to taste is customized original ecological colored rice, and what is sold on the market must also be the same variety. Only with mutual trust can the business be made bigger and stronger."

The growth cycle of colored rice is about 20 days longer than that of ordinary rice, and currently only one season is planted. Because no pesticides were sprayed and no fertilizer was applied, the yield was on the low side. At the beginning of trial planting, the yield was 180 jin per mu, last year it reached 240 jin, and this year it is close to 300 jin.

Starting in 2014, following the promotion idea of "free tasting," Zeng Fanxing focused his promotion on the Changsha market, promoting through WeChat and other means and offering free home delivery. "At first, customers did not believe in my quality and even specifically compared my colored rice with that on the market," Zeng Fanxing said. Through on-site processing, the result was that his colored rice was clearly superior in both taste and aroma. Now he runs to Changsha four or five times a week to deliver vacuum-packed colored rice to customers' hands.

At the Central Hunan Agricultural Expo held on November 19, after Zeng Fanxing exhibited his five-color rice, it also received unanimous praise from residents and experts and media from all sides. This also strengthened his confidence in developing ecological agriculture. "Next year I will double the planting of five-color rice. Now custom pre-orders have clearly increased. As long as I have goods, I am not worried about sales."

The Long Road of a "Young Farm Owner"

When chatting with the reporter about how agricultural projects mostly "require large investment and yield slow returns," and are a very long-term undertaking, Zeng Fanxing said with a smile that this was also one of his dreams: facing green mountains and clear waters every day, living in an ecological garden. Although the entrepreneurial process is rather hard, his body and mind are more comfortable and at ease than being an office worker in the city. This also fulfilled his childhood dream: becoming a farm owner.

Starting this year, the Ministry of Agriculture will join with the Ministry of Education and the Communist Youth League Central Committee to launch the "Modern Young Farm Owner Training Program," which plans to select 10,000 modern young farmers aged 18-45 each year and cultivate them into young farm owners, injecting fresh blood into the development of modern agriculture. "New farmers" aims to attract and support rural youth in starting businesses and developing industries, and to build a team of young farm owners with strong entrepreneurial ability, high skill levels and a strong driving role.

"I saw that fewer and fewer people in my hometown were farming, and the land in the mountains was almost all abandoned, so I thought we could not let resources go to waste. This can create value, and at the same time it can also help fellow villagers increase their incomes together," Zeng Fanxing said. With the government's encouragement and support, he has always been exploring and learning the most suitable operating model and production model, and through scientific management, avoiding risks and shortening the return cycle.

From seed selection to production to management, Zeng Fanxing does everything himself and is meticulous in every detail. He said that as economic levels continue to rise, people's demand for high-quality, original ecological agricultural products is growing higher and higher. To open up the market and enter the market, one must build a brand through quality, and this is also the most essential profit point of agricultural production.