Learning from Shouguang's High-Tech Farming and Breeding to Explore an Alternative Path of Land Reclamation
The photo shows Zhu Guanyang inspecting vegetable seedlings.
Five years ago, Zhu Guanyang, a post-80s generation man, "fired" his "boss," bid farewell to his "iron rice bowl," and quit his job to go home. Having grown up by the Puyang River, he returned to his native soil - Jiangnan Village in Puyang Town, a beautiful village that had raised him.
Under the doubtful and puzzled gazes of those around him, Zhu Guanyang rejoined the "ranks" of his forefathers and became a farmer.
Most young people had gone out to start businesses, either opening shops or factories, or "playing" with high technology. But young Zhu had his own firm ideas: agriculture, especially new-type agriculture, must not be "bid farewell" by our generation of young people. It is also an eternally sunrise industry and is bound to have great prospects.
Lacking technology and experience, Zhu Guanyang went alone to Shouguang in Shandong, a well-known national vegetable base, where he "pestered" growers in their greenhouses to secretly learn their skills. After several months, his sincerity moved the local technicians, who took him as an apprentice and taught him their skills without reservation.
With his "real kung fu," in 2010, through the village, young Zhu transferred 200 mu of land, built greenhouses, exploited time gaps throughout the year, and grew off-season vegetables. Zhu Guanyang gave his base a name both meaningful and down-to-earth: Jinmaitian.
His vegetables, from seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and every other link, were all high-tech products, and were pollution-free and purely green. Having once worked in vegetable procurement, he ran the market and did sales promotion, and his products quickly won the favor of city dwellers, with major supermarkets and vegetable markets competing to snap them up.
After getting on track, young Zhu's "ambition" grew even bigger. Zhu Guanyang successively transferred more than 400 mu of land. Part of it continued to be used for greenhouses, and the other part for growing green rice, and he applied for his own brand.
After mastering crop farming with ease, Zhu Guanyang then set out to realize his "three-dimensional ecological agriculture dream" and began to "march into" the breeding industry. Under the guidance of "experts," he introduced Hu sheep breeding stock, which are highly favored by the market, from the north, hired specialists, and built a breeding base.
He overcame the technical barrier of "raising northern sheep in the south." After 3 years of development, he has now formed a massive "Hu sheep army" of 1,500, becoming the largest Hu sheep breeding base in the Hangzhou area. "This has high added value. In a few years, I'll explore deep processing to form a complete industrial chain," Zhu Guanyang said confidently.
Another advantage of having the breeding base and the planting base under the same "banner" is that it forms a closed three-dimensional circular industrial chain. The Hu sheep's feeding problem is solved, and fertilizer for planting is no longer a worry. This virtuous cycle saves costs and greatly increases benefits. Today, the three-dimensional agriculture has strong momentum, with output value already exceeding 10 million yuan.
Zhu Guanyang's "ambition" goes far beyond this. When the weather is hot, the 50-mu mushroom base needs an "umbrella" to provide shade. From this, he thought: why not make use of it and see if a solar power generation project could be set up, so that he can use it himself and earn extra income from the surplus. In this way, "three-dimensional agriculture" became even more complete.
Unexpectedly, his idea was quickly recognized. He soon "tied the knot" with a well-known solar energy company, and the project is steadily advancing.
In recent years, the Pujiang River Ecological Economic Zone has been incorporated into design, planning and development at a higher level. Young Zhu's base enjoys unique geographical and foundational advantages, which broadens his vision and makes his "ambition" even greater.
"In the future, I plan to build a high-standard ecological leisure modern agricultural tourism base integrating picking, sightseeing, dining, accommodation and sports, further integrate resources, extend toward the high-end agricultural industrial chain, and make agriculture into a high-end service industry as well." Zhu Guanyang envisioned his plans.
With "Internet Plus" surging, young Zhu is also quite sensitive to trends. In addition to opening several direct-sale stores in the urban area that can deliver directly, this year he and several like-minded people in the industry built Xiaoshan's first "aerial vegetable market." They "went electric," doing e-commerce in the vegetable circulation field. At present, a professional APP, WeChat public account, website and others have all gone online, and a brand-new industry circulation model is being born in their hands.
The early winter sunlight quietly spills over dozens of vegetable greenhouses, giving off colorful rays. "Agriculture has great prospects, rural areas have great development potential, and being a modern farmer is also something to be proud of." Zhu Guanyang gazed at the rushing Puyang River, his firm words drifting away with the wind.