How an agricultural professional manager got the job with new ideas

Wei Tao, the agricultural professional manager of the Qianfeng Land Share Cooperative in Qiquan Town, Chongzhou City, Sichuan Province, dresses fashionably, has a medium build, and is humorous and full of confidence in conversation. Born in 1986 in Qiquan Town, Chongzhou City, he graduated from Chengdu University in 2006 and then taught at Dongguan Middle School in Chongzhou City. Naturally active, in a chance opportunity in 2009 he was recruited as a "one village, one college student" officer in Qun'an Village, Qiquan Town, becoming a post-80s rural "new educated youth."

In 2011, the land share cooperatives that Chongzhou City vigorously promoted greatly benefited him. Land share cooperatives differ from other land transfer methods: they not only guarantee farmers' rent, but also allow them to share in the cooperative's profits through dividends. This excited him greatly, and he felt the cooperative was where his dream began. At that time, he signed up for Chengdu's 2012 agricultural professional manager training. Through systematic theoretical and practical training, his abilities and level improved greatly, and he successfully passed the assessment and obtained a professional manager certificate.

In 2013, the Qianfeng Land Share Cooperative in Qiquan Town publicly recruited an agricultural professional manager. Wei Tao was extremely excited and could hardly wait to put the knowledge he had learned into practice. On the day of the public recruitment, he learned that one of the other candidates was a big boss from out of town and the other was a large-scale farmer from their village. Both had good experience and strength and were formidable competitors. But he was not intimidated, because he knew the business model they used belonged to the traditional transfer-and-contract model, while he believed the land share cooperative business model he adopted was exactly in line with the development trend of modern agriculture and an important lever for helping farmers increase income. At the recruitment meeting he was full of confidence, speaking eloquently about the advantages of the land share cooperative business model and making commitments. The members who had experienced previous transfer failures placed unlimited trust and urgent hope in this post-80s college student before them, and in the end, he won election successfully by an absolute margin.

Opportunity and challenge coexist, and motivation and pressure go together. At this time, he clearly realized the heavy responsibility on his shoulders. He carefully formulated planting plans and patiently sought members' opinions. In the 2013 small spring season, in order to grow 350 mu of rapeseed well, he worked from dawn to dusk leading the cooperative's technical backbone in careful management and took great pains to contact agricultural technology experts for on-site guidance. Indeed, hard work pays off: in the first year the rapeseed yield reached 330 jin per mu, far exceeding Chongzhou City's average rapeseed yield of 280 jin per mu, and in the first year alone the small spring rapeseed sold for more than 200,000 yuan. The joy of a good start fully inspired his passion for undertaking and starting businesses. At the 2014 large spring dividend, he fulfilled his promise of a guaranteed minimum dividend to members. Members who joined the cooperative received a guaranteed minimum of 500 yuan per mu plus a second dividend of 155 yuan. At the same time, through the industrialized operation of the land share cooperative, labor was freed up, members' wage income increased, and average household income rose by more than 6,000 yuan. Seeing the joy written all over the members' faces, he was also sincerely happy and felt that no amount of effort was too much. In 2015, the Qianfeng Land Share Cooperative basically achieved full mechanization from sowing to harvesting. Nowadays, in the cooperative's rice fields, soft-shelled turtles, shrimp, crabs and other aquatic products of extremely high economic value are raised, and the cooperative's value has begun to show. Wei Tao's personal income has also increased substantially.