Greenhouse technology innovation gives rise to a "greenhouse real estate" economy
Li Qiang, general manager of Shenggui Greenhouse Technology Promotion Co., Ltd. in Zhangzi County, Shanxi Province, assistant agronomist, member of the Changzhi Municipal Youth Federation, vice president of the Zhangzi County Vegetable Research Association, vice president of the Zhangzi County Cooperative Federation... His string of titles carries his sweat and honors, and marks his commitment to and transcendence of the value of life.
Disease "forces out" a new patent
Li Qiang's father, Li Shenggui, spent many years delving into green pepper cultivation techniques and shared his research results with everyone, and was affectionately called the "Green Pepper King" by the villagers. Li Shenggui and the villagers tasted the sweetness and gained real benefits from growing green peppers in open fields. However, when everyone was immersed in the happiness of a bumper harvest, because of continuous years of repeated cropping, soil-borne diseases became increasingly serious, and yields and benefits declined year by year. The county's green pepper planting area fell from an annual planting area of 80,000 mu at its peak to less than 20,000 mu. Over ten years of day and night, the father and son devoted all their thoughts and all the family's hard-earned savings to preventing and controlling green pepper diseases, but with little effect. After ten years of effort, with pain accompanied by joy, and after countless experiments, in 2001 they finally invented the prototype of a simple bamboo-and-wood structure greenhouse. After several revisions, the following year they completed the first generation of simple vegetable greenhouses with low cost, easy operation, strong toughness, and good benefits. People vividly called it the "Shenggui mobile greenhouse," and in April 2007 it obtained a "Utility Model Patent Certificate" granted by the State Intellectual Property Office.
Establishing a company to promote greenhouses
Later, Li Qiang established Shenggui Greenhouse Technology Promotion Co., Ltd. in Zhangzi County. At the beginning of the company's establishment, Li Qiang made the improvement of greenhouse frame production, experimental demonstration of planting models, and promotion and application of greenhouse technology the company's main goals, aiming to develop the vegetable planting industry, mainly greenhouse green peppers, into the leading industry for increasing farmers' income throughout the county. As market demand increased, the company continuously increased hardware investment and expanded its business model. On the basis of the original frame production plant and technical training center, the company added a science and technology service center and expanded two demonstration parks with a total scale of 1,700 mu. In the demonstration area, people vividly said: "One greenhouse per household, no need to worry about food and drink, money to be made every day, nearly 10,000 yuan per person." The teaching and training base has so far carried out more than 40 sessions of agricultural science and technology promotion and training activities, training more than 5,000 technical personnel per year. During this period, Li Qiang completed a two-year associate degree program in horticulture at China Central Radio and Television University through self-study, participated in the China Youth Vegetable Industry Entrepreneurship Training, participated in new-type professional farmer training, and in 2015 was listed as a cultivation target for modern young farm owners.
Property-style greenhouse management creates a win-win for farmers and enterprises
As mobile greenhouse technology became increasingly complete, Li Qiang's Zhangzi County Little Earthworm Planting Professional Cooperative, which focuses on the concept of "greenhouse real estate," was established in February 2014. The "greenhouse real estate" model is a model in which an agricultural company or cooperative centrally funds land transfer, builds the land into mobile vegetable greenhouses, improves the infrastructure, and then subleases them to farmers, while obtaining returns from daily management within the farmers' income.
The Little Earthworm Planting Professional Cooperative advocates the concept of "greenhouse real estate," namely property-style greenhouse management. The company plans to invest 10 million yuan over three years, transfer 1,000 mu of land, build all of it into Shenggui-style mobile greenhouses, and improve facilities such as water, electricity, and roads. The cooperative follows the purpose of "transferring strip-shaped fields, building standard parks, connecting water and electricity roads, and cultivating under closed management," and growers abide by the company's "five unifications": unified standards, unified management, unified trademark, unified prevention and control, and unified sales. This concept of property-style greenhouse management not only solves the problem of farmers being able to become prosperous even without capital, but also broadens the business channel of company + base + farmers.