Growing Health-Boosting Vegetables to Cultivate a Path to Prosperity, Zhou Kai Leads Villagers to Increase Their Income

In Lita Natural Village, Maoshan, Jurong City, Jiangsu Province, a college-graduate village official with a daring, innovative spirit successfully trial-planted yellow okra, known as "green ginseng," producing solid economic returns and leading villagers to prosperity together. Recently, a reporter met Zhou Kai, deputy party secretary of Mudong Village under the Maoshan Scenic Area Management Committee, and listened to his story of growing vegetables in the mountains.

In 2009, Zhou Kai graduated from Jiangsu Teachers University of Technology with a degree in Educational Technology, and in 2010 he returned to his hometown as a college-graduate village official. Back home, Zhou Kai kept thinking about the road to prosperity. One time he happened to see a TV feature introducing a yellow okra cultivation project, which sparked his interest. After gathering relevant materials, his idea of growing "health-boosting vegetables" grew stronger and stronger.

In April 2012, Zhou Kai sowed his first batch of yellow okra seeds and began his entrepreneurial journey. As a first-time vegetable grower, only he knew the bittersweet ups and downs: early on, the plants were spaced too closely and lacked airflow, affecting crop growth, and it took several adjustments to find the optimal spacing; later, too much topdressing made it hard for the pods to form properly; when harvesting the pods, lacking proper protection, he was pricked by the bristles on the stems and leaves, leaving his skin unbearably itchy... Zhou Kai just laughed off the hardship and exhaustion.

In July of that year, the yellow okra Zhou Kai had planted ripened. On a plot of vegetable land beside Lita Reservoir, Zhou Kai held the bright green vegetable, which closely resembles a pointed facing-heaven chili, and introduced its growing characteristics to the villagers. "This is yellow okra. You can take some home and stir-fry it with shredded pork or blanch it and serve it cold; it has a refreshing taste and a delicate fragrance. When harvesting, wear gloves and long sleeves, and cut it off with scissors. Pods that are intact and look good can sell for 20 yuan per kilogram, with a yield of 1,000 kilograms per mu. Lots of people in big cities like Beijing and Shanghai eat it!"

Seeing the pods Zhou Kai had grown, hearing him patiently calculate the economics for everyone, and watching him demonstrate hand by hand, quite a few villagers were won over. Villagers such as Xie Yulong, Li Baoling, Li Baoyou and Xia Laixi joined the growing effort one after another. Zhou Kai earnestly passed on his cultivation experience to the villagers, invited experts to provide guidance door to door, and took the lead in connecting them with sales channels. Zhou Kai said with deep feeling that growing these "health-boosting vegetables" in the blessed land of Maoshan has increased farmers' incomes. "The hiring conditions have no age limit; most are farming households around 60 years old. Picking yellow okra pays 100 yuan, and weeding pays 80 yuan per day. At the busiest times, more than 20 people were hired. Last year, the vegetable planting base paid out more than 50,000 yuan in wages alone."

Besides yellow okra, Zhou Kai also tried growing specialty vegetables such as kiwano, snake gourd and apple-flavored cucumber. As for yellow okra, Zhou Kai says it is a new variety whose market recognition and acceptance have not yet been widely embraced by the public. At present, their yellow okra is still limited to fresh pod sales, and their wholesalers are only in Zhenjiang and Changzhou. Every time there is a bumper harvest, a lot of stock piles up and is lost because it cannot be preserved, and the benefit is only 3,000 yuan per mu, still short of the target Zhou Kai has in mind. He investigated and learned that yellow okra seeds can be pressed for oil, which currently sells for as much as 600 yuan per kilogram. The oil is rich in unsaturated fatty acids, and its nutritional content and fragrance far exceed those of sesame oil and peanut oil. He began to think about deep processing and applied for a college-graduate village official startup loan. At present, the processing project requires a large upfront investment, but he is full of confidence about its future development.