Sichuan purple yam sells well, hot in the Shanghai market
Original title: Growing purple yam fulfilled the dream of becoming prosperous
Zhang Hong showing off the purple yam he grew (photo)
Comprehensive report from San Nong Zhi Tong Che: On November 9, Zhang Hong received his 5th phone order for purple yam within a week. As a returning migrant worker from Wuyang Town, Pengshan District, Meishan City, Zhang Hong has used a purple yam planting base of more than 200 mu to provide work for more than 100 local people, and he has to pay 100,000 yuan in wages to the workers every month.
Zhang Hong, 40 this year, lives in Wuyang Town, Pengshan District, and began learning citrus planting techniques under his parents' guidance at the age of 15. Because he was serious in his work and highly motivated, he was elected by the local people as a production team leader at the age of 17.
In order to improve his family's life, in addition to growing citrus, Zhang Hong successively repaired motorcycles and sold motorcycles, worked as a migrant worker in the Jiangsu-Zhejiang area, and contracted high-speed rail construction projects, with an annual income that once reached 200,000 yuan.
Although his income was good, more than 10 years of working away from home made Zhang Hong miss home especially, and he kept thinking about returning home to start a business so he could be reunited with his family for the long term. In 2013, he found his opportunity.
"At the time, I discovered purple yam in a large supermarket in Shanghai and was immediately attracted by it. When I saw that the price of purple yam was 40 yuan per kg, I was shocked. Since I had never seen this kind of yam before, I was very interested." Zhang Hong said that after learning about the planting characteristics and market prospects of purple yam through the internet, he had the idea of returning home to grow it.
At the end of 2013, after some investigation, Zhang Hong returned from outside the province to his hometown in Wuyang Town, Pengshan District, and went to an agricultural company in Guang'an to study purple yam planting techniques for 3 months. When he learned that very few people in Sichuan Province were growing purple yam, he immediately decided to start a business.
In 2014, Zhang Hong obtained an income of nearly 20,000 yuan per mu by trial-planting 2 mu of purple yam. At the beginning of this year, through the town- and village-level land transfer companies, he transferred more than 260 mu of land and planted more than 260 mu of purple yam.
"These past few days are exactly the time when purple yam is coming onto the market, and I organized workers to harvest purple yam in time for the 'order households'." Zhang Hong said that the more than 260 mu of purple yam he planted can yield about 2,000 kg per mu, with a wholesale price of 6-8 yuan per kg, and income per mu can reach about 15,000 yuan. "I can earn from this more than 260 mu of land a sum of money greater than what I earned working away from home, and my fellow villagers can also earn money from me." Zhang Hong told this writer that in his fields, at most there are more than 100 local people working every day, and every month he has to pay more than 100,000 yuan in wages to the working people. "Returning home to grow purple yam is great; I can earn money, and the people can earn money too." Zhang Hong said happily.
Zhang Hong plans to expand the purple yam planting area to 1,000 mu next year, and build a controlled-atmosphere storage and a factory to carry out deep processing of purple yam, making purple yam powder and purple yam pastries and then promoting them to the national market.