The Grape-Growing Path to Wealth: Old Li's Story of Increasing Income

In 2004, Wang Deliang borrowed more than 3 million yuan from friends, saying he wanted to expand his operation. When the civil engineering work was finished, everyone discovered that Wang Deliang had actually built this 4,600-sq-m hotel on the grassland, and not a single person was willing to lend him money again.

Wang Deliang: With the novelty-seeking psychology of traveling to a different place, people come to the grassland not to stay in a hotel, but to experience a Mongolian yurt.

Because of a moment's blind impulse, Wang Deliang paid a price that lasted ten years. In 2014, Wang Deliang was 50 years old, and all he had was more than 3 million yuan in debt and more than 60 dilapidated Mongolian yurts with no money to renovate them.

Wang Deliang: The ten years were not easy. Recently, Li Debin, chairman of the Dezhong Grape Planting Professional Cooperative in Hujinkou Village, Quzhou County, was overjoyed. This year's greenhouse grapes had a bumper harvest, attracting many visitors to come and pick them, and with sales going very well, the economic returns were quite good.

Speaking of growing grapes, Li Debin explained that Hujinkou Village is a traditional agricultural village. The small plots of farmland are not conducive to mechanized farming, and only conventional crops such as wheat, corn and cotton are grown. Where was the path for the villagers to get rich? After investigation, he found that protected grape cultivation requires a large upfront investment and carries a certain risk, but it is an efficient forest-fruit industry that is easy to promote, yields quick results and has broad development prospects. It can not only bring fruit to market earlier and later than open-field cultivation, but also reduce the occurrence of pests and diseases and avoid the effects of bad weather, thereby increasing grape yield and quality, with considerable benefits.

Everything is hard at the beginning. In order to get the farmers to transfer their land, Li Debin went door

to door doing the work, and he could not remember how many trips he made or how many words he said. After more than a year of effort, grape greenhouses were built in 2012 and grape seedlings were planted.

Although Li Debin had some understanding of protected agriculture, he had never tried grape cultivation. In order to master a complete set of growing techniques, he decided to forge ties with China's highest agricultural institution, China Agricultural University. Hard work pays off. Li Debin's business approach and sincerity moved two professors at China Agricultural University, and they decided to give the Dezhong Grape Planting Professional Cooperative all-round technical support. "Dezhong Grapes," with the two main advantages of being natural, pollution-free and selenium-enriched, sold well all the way in large vegetable and fruit markets such as Jinan and Tianjin, were favored by customers, and became truly worthy of the name "golden grapes."

"Grape Old Li" was brewing an even bigger plan in his mind: develop cooperative members, rely on China Agricultural University's technology, cultivate high-quality grape seedlings, provide them uniformly to growers, and take unified action in technical assistance, procurement of agricultural materials, market development and other links, so that more villagers can increase their income and become rich.