Bamboo farmer Hu Yonggen: Devoted to growing bamboo with unwavering resolve
In Qingtian Village, Fuwen Township, whenever Hu Yonggen is mentioned, many people voice admiring praise, saying he is a man of courage and insight. For by contracting barren hills to plant moso bamboo, Hu Yonggen's family began to walk the road to prosperity.
Hu Yonggen's home is near Provincial Highway 06 and the Hangzhou-Qiandao Lake Expressway, with convenient transportation. After policies opened up, he understood the ways of doing business and making money. Back when he graduated from high school, he traveled far and wide, doing reselling, odd jobs, and working as a contractor, engaging in various tertiary industries for more than ten years. After starting a family, young Hu had a son and a daughter, so he stopped going out to do business. The money he had saved in his pocket did not go, as with some farmers, toward buying a house in the city to enjoy a comfortable life, nor was it squandered wastefully like some young people did; instead, he pondered how to put the money he earned to better use.
After repeated consideration, Hu Yonggen concluded that investing funds in development and entrepreneurship was the best choice. Given the current market conditions, he felt that developing moso bamboo was a good path: first, it is stable; second, it carries little risk. Once his mind was made up, he acted at once. In 2001 and 2004, in two consecutive years, he transferred 200 mu of three barren hills and scattered moso bamboo groves in Pingshan Forest Farm, Zhucun and other villages in the township, with a contract period of 50 years. Over several years, he turned the barren hills and scattered moso bamboo groves into contiguous moso bamboo groves. It is expected that by 2008 the 200 mu of moso bamboo groves will generate an annual income of more than 50,000 yuan.
Gazing at the patches of emerald-green moso bamboo groves, Hu Yonggen's face showed a knowing smile. Recalling his entrepreneurial journey, he had a deeper realization: "What I rely on is four things: policy, investment, hard work, and technology." In recent years, our county has introduced preferential policies for developing forestry and other developmental production in villages by the reservoir. Hu Yonggen seized this opportunity and received a total of 40,000 yuan in subsidies. In addition, to support farmers in developing production, the township Party committee and government actively sought project funds. The county immigration bureau provided a subsidy of 80 yuan per mu without charge for a 200-mu moso bamboo cultivation and tending base in a reservoir-area village, and young Hu again enjoyed the benefit of 16,000 yuan in subsidy funds. All of this greatly encouraged Hu Yonggen's enthusiasm for developing forestry and planting moso bamboo. To prevent the moso bamboo from drought and theft, he also did not hesitate to invest 20,000 yuan to build 2 water storage tanks, temporary housing, and a warehouse.
People who have been to the moso bamboo base all say it is like an eco-tourism base. But who knows that for this 200-mu moso bamboo base, young Hu spared no effort, rising early and working late, sweating and braving the rain, devoting himself body and soul. To carefully cultivate the bamboo grove, he hoes weeds 2 times a year and fertilizes 2 times a year, preventing insects and disease, and he attaches great importance to meticulous management. Young Hu had not farmed for long and did not understand moso bamboo planting techniques. He said he learned from those who were capable and asked whenever he did not understand. Every year he subscribed to science and technology newspapers and periodicals, bought many books and materials on moso bamboo cultivation techniques, and repeatedly invited county forestry and township forestry technicians to provide on-site guidance. Several years of entrepreneurship made Hu Yonggen deeply realize: relying on science and technology to get rich is absolutely a truth.