Female college-graduate village official in Hefei, Anhui starts a business and grows a "wealth fruit"

She is a post-90s college-graduate village official who has taken root in the countryside, leading villagers to grow nursery stock and becoming a leader in rural prosperity. "As village officials, no matter how small the things we do are, they concern the interests of every villager." The goal of Kong Weiling, deputy director of Shuanglong Community in Shishugang Township, Feixi County, is to be a down-to-earth "dream chaser."

In September 2013, after graduating from university, Kong Weiling came to Shuanglong Community in Shishugang Township, Feixi County, to serve as assistant to the community director and became a college-graduate village official. Here, most villagers mainly grow rice and cotton. Because incomes are low, most young and middle-aged people choose to go out to work, and some land is left idle.

After fully investigating the market, Kong Weiling found that growing nursery stock was expected to change the village's current situation. However, the huge capital investment, lack of planting experience and uncertainty of sales channels made many villagers back out. With a spirit of adventure, she decided to take this step first and "do an experiment" herself. So in early November 2013, Kong Weiling signed up for the Ministry of Agriculture's Sunshine Project training class on rural youth agricultural entrepreneurship to learn entrepreneurial experience and planting methods. At the same time, she actively communicated with villagers and finally contracted more than 40 mu of land at a price of more than 500 yuan per mu.

The hardships of starting a business can be imagined, and for Kong Weiling, a "layman" in nursery stock planting, it was even more so. She went from one nursery stock market to another to gather market information, sought teachers everywhere to learn planting techniques, and borrowed money everywhere to raise funds... Hard work pays off, and finally this entrepreneurial park named "Hefei Weilin Landscaping Co., Ltd." was formally established, solving the employment problem of 30 surrounding farming households. For future development, Kong Weiling has bigger plans: "We are preparing to establish a cooperative and gradually explore and improve a new type of facility agriculture development path of 'cooperative + farmers + direct sales outlets.'" At present, the second phase of the entrepreneurial park has newly transferred more than 120 mu of land to expand the planting scale and drive more farmers toward prosperity and a moderately prosperous life.