Growing purple yams well sets his hometown on the road to prosperity

The purple yams grown by Zhang Hong.

At 10 a.m. on October 9, light rain was moistening the land of the hometown of longevity. In the boundless purple yam planting base, Zhang Hong and the workers were straining together to pull the green netting for building a fence. When he received a phone call about an order, Zhang Hong smiled happily and worked with even more energy. "Plant purple yams, and everyone gets rich together." Talking about his original intention in returning home to start a business, Zhang Hong said.

Locking On to a Project and Returning Home to Start a Business

Zhang Hong is from Wuyang Town, Pengshan District, and is 40 years old this year. Born into a farming family, he has had a special feeling for the land since childhood. Because he worked conscientiously and was strongly motivated to improve himself, he became a production team leader at the age of 17.

Zhang Hong is a person who is dissatisfied with the status quo and also willing to take on new things. To improve his family's life, in addition to growing citrus, he learned motorcycle repair skills, repairing and selling motorcycles. Later, with the emergence of the "migrant worker tide," he also "fashionably" went to the Jiangsu-Zhejiang area to work. During the 10 years he drifted away from home, he went from an ordinary migrant worker to a "labor contractor" contracting high-speed rail projects, with an annual income of nearly 200,000 yuan.

The income was good, but after working away from home for a long time, Zhang Hong missed home especially. He wanted to return home to start a business, but had not found a suitable project, until 2013, when the opportunity came.

"At the time, I found purple yams in a large supermarket in Shanghai and was immediately attracted by them. I took a look, and the price of purple yams was 40 yuan per kilogram. I was given a big fright. I had never seen this kind of yam before and was very interested." Zhang Hong said that he learned about the characteristics and market prospects of purple yams through the internet. "Thinking that there were very few purple yams on the market and that many people in my hometown had never seen them, I wanted to go back home and plant them, so that my elders and fellow townspeople could also eat this healthy food." Zhang Hong said.

At the end of 2013, after a round of investigation, Zhang Hong decided to return to his hometown in Pengshan to plant purple yams. To learn planting techniques, through an introduction by a friend, Zhang Hong went to an agricultural company in Guang'an to study for 3 months, then returned to Pengshan full of entrepreneurial passion.

"I transferred more than 200 mu of land in Wuyang Town." Zhang Hong said that after inviting experts to test the soil, he took out all his savings and began his business. When he did not have enough money, he borrowed from relatives and friends. After unremitting efforts, in October 2014, the trial planting of purple yams finally succeeded.

Innovating Methods to Increase Production and Income

This year, to improve quality and increase benefits, Zhang Hong also innovated his planting methods. "The branches and leaves of purple yams are very lush and need support. In the first year, I used the traditional bamboo pole support method, which was both unstable and costly. Later, after many practices and investigations, I drew inspiration from the grape trellises in Pengshan and used concrete posts plus iron wire to let the branches and leaves of the purple yams climb. Unexpectedly, it was quite successful, and in the long run it will also greatly save costs." Zhang Hong said that with this method, it is expected that this year's purple yam yield per mu can be several hundred jin higher.

Innovation has no end. In practice, Zhang Hong also placed custom-made horizontal shaping grooves at the rhizome of each purple yam. "In this way, the purple yams will grow horizontally, and at maturity this will greatly improve the efficiency of digging." Zhang Hong said.

"Now the purple yams are basically mature, and in a few days customers will come to dig them." Zhang Hong said that this year's purple yam output is expected to reach 500,000 kilograms, with a wholesale price of more than 12 yuan per kilogram.

Aiming at the Goal and Moving Forward Continuously

Returning home to start a business, getting rich himself, and also driving his fellow townspeople to get rich together, this was Zhang Hong's original intention and also the direction of his efforts. Now, during the planting and harvest seasons for purple yams, there are more than 100 fellow townspeople working in his base. The wages he pays them each month exceed 100,000 yuan.

Zhang Hong's goal is to drive more people to plant purple yams, provide seeds and technical services to more people, and let all Meishan people understand purple yams and eat purple yams. "Next year, I will expand the planting to 1,000 mu, and I also plan to build a controlled-atmosphere warehouse to deeply process purple yams into purple yam powder, purple yam pastries, and so on, and then promote purple yams across the country." Speaking of the road of future development, Zhang Hong was full of confidence.

For this reason, as the "boss," he has always been working hard. He arrives at the planting base on time at 6:30 every morning, goes home at noon to eat, and then hurries back to the field. A worker joked with him: "How come you, the boss, arrive earlier than we do?" Zhang Hong always says with a smile that only by doing things yourself can you have enough food and clothing. With this drive and effort, we believe that Zhang Hong's dream will certainly come true ahead of schedule.