The grain-growing story of Lu Guoping, one of China's largest grain farmers
"Flooded nine years out of ten, two failed harvests in three years" - this was the helpless sigh of local farmers about what was once barren land. Today, by the shores of Poyang Lake, inside the Huanghu Polder, these more than 20,000 mu of low-lying land in Jiangxiang Town, Nanchang County, have been transformed into a "National Pollution-Free Rice Planting Base" and a "National Agricultural Comprehensive Development New Rural Construction Demonstration Zone," with total annual output value exceeding 150 million yuan - a river of gold and silver!
Lu Guoping (right) inspecting rice growth in the field. Photo by reporter Zhu Xuejun
Lu Guoping, 43, Party secretary of Zhoutou Village in Jiangxiang Town, once swore he would never be a farmer in his life. Now, he has donned the laurels of "China's Largest Grain Farmer" and "National Model Grain Production Farmer," leading the way in modern agriculture!
Starting in 1999, after 10 years of arduous entrepreneurship, Lu Guoping and his Jiangxi Guowang Industrial Co., Ltd. completed the leap from traditional agriculture to modern agriculture.
Taking on 1,018 mu of abandoned farmland to test the waters, relentlessly building a modern agricultural model, the pioneer who returned to the land has reaped a successful enterprise
Jiangxiang Town is located within the Huanghu Polder by the shores of Poyang Lake, where more than 20,000 mu of low-lying fields are called "hopeless fields" by the villagers. Under the traditional model of scattered household management, no matter how hard the villagers toiled, even in a good year they could only maintain subsistence.
The harsh living environment made Lu Guoping, a native of the area, dislike farm work since childhood, and he once swore he would never be a farmer in his life.
After graduating from high school in 1986, Lu Guoping resolutely left home to work elsewhere. He learned to be an electrician, grew mushrooms, did small trading, and then opened a factory doing gunny sack processing...
Through a chance business transaction, he visited a rural area in Jiading District, Shanghai. There, all the farmland was managed in a garden-like manner, with mechanized cultivation, and the traditional farming model had been replaced by a modern one.
Shocked by the pastoral landscape before his eyes, Lu Guoping, who had always regarded farming as a daunting prospect, conceived the idea of bringing the Shanghai model back to his hometown.
In 1998, Jiangxi suffered a catastrophic flood unprecedented in a century, leaving 1,018 mu of low-lying fields in Zhoutou Village, Jiangxiang Town, abandoned. Having just returned home from Shanghai, Lu Guoping, then deputy director of the village committee, resolutely made the most important decision of his life. With the full support of governments at all levels and the village committee, Lu Guoping signed a 20-year management rights contract for these 1,018 mu of low-lying land at 160 yuan per mu, registered Jiangxi Guowang Industrial Co., Ltd., and launched his path of large-scale farming.
The land was still the same land, and the farmers were still local farmers, but the "farmland aircraft carrier" formed through land transfer radiated magical charm. In one year, Lu Guoping harvested more than 450,000 kg of rice, and after deducting expenses and costs, made a net profit of more than 100,000 yuan.
In the following years, Lu Guoping contracted more and more land, and his level of modern cultivation grew ever higher. From plowing to harvesting and drying, everything was mechanized.
In 2002, he converted 4,000 mu of cold-water fields into dual-purpose fields for fish farming and grain growing, expanding single grain production into a diversified industry integrating grain planting and aquaculture.
In 2008, the land contracted by Lu Guoping increased to 20,000 mu, with total annual output value exceeding 150 million yuan, making him currently China's largest individual grain farmer. The land he manages has become a "National Pollution-Free Rice Planting Base" and a "National Agricultural Comprehensive Development New Rural Construction Demonstration Zone," and the income of local villagers working at his company has increased several times compared to when they farmed individually in the past.
Leading production with modern concepts and scientific practice, boldly innovating traditional farming models, the path of modern agriculture sparkles everywhere with the wisdom of scientific development
Along the way, Lu Guoping has always regarded science and technology as the magic weapon for developing modern agriculture.
In Jiangxi, Lu Guoping was the first to subscribe to weather forecasts for agricultural production, the first to use soil testing and formula fertilization technology on a large scale, the first to use aircraft to spray pesticides, the first to use rice drying technology...
For large-scale farming, understanding weather changes is especially important. Lu Guoping paid 500 yuan a year to customize a 24-hour telephone professional weather inquiry service from the meteorological department. Even now, when mentioning this innovation with little investment and rich returns, Lu Guoping still sighs with emotion.
In the summer of 1999, the first year of his contract operation, Lu Guoping learned from the meteorological bureau that there would be 10 consecutive days of clear weather, and decided to seize the opportunity to fight a splendid "double rush battle." With the help of the county agricultural machinery department, he brought in 4 combine harvesters and organized 6 teams responsible respectively for harvesting, transport, plowing, transplanting, grain drying, and packing for storage. Harvesting more than 200 mu a day, with more than 50,000 kg of rice stored in the warehouse, the spectacular scene stunned the surrounding villagers.