Clever Vegetable Farming Leads to Moderate Prosperity: The Wealth-Building Story of Star Vegetable Farmer Wang Songyu

    10 years ago, he relied on growing grain to make a living, the family struggled to get by, and their poverty was shocking; 10 years later, he supports his family by growing vegetables, lives in comfort and prosperity, and his wealth-building story makes people envious. His name is Wang Songyu, 59 years old this year, and he is a star of the vegetable industry in Tumen Town, Yunxi County, Hubei Province. Over the past 10 years, he has used his diligence and wisdom to tell people that those over 50 still have a place to put their talents to use, and that miracles can also be created by staying in the vast countryside.

Wang Songyu spraying tomatoes in his vegetable shed.

Wang Songyu spraying tomatoes in his vegetable shed.


Wang Songyu picking fresh cucumbers, preparing to sell them the next day.


Not long ago, at the Yunxi County vegetable industry on-site meeting, Wang Songyu (first from left) said happily to county leaders in his vegetable plot: "I planted 12 sheds!" (File photo, source: Yunxi Online)

    This old man, usually dark-skinned and covered in mud all day, planted 12 sheds of vegetables this year, with an area of nearly 5 mu. After entering April, his daily vegetable-selling income was above five or six hundred yuan. It is expected that after this year's four seasons of vegetables are sold, his income can exceed 100,000 yuan. 

    More than 10 years ago, like many farming families, Wang Songyu's family was still very poor. At that time, his family only grew grain and other crops, and after a hard year they had an income of only about one thousand yuan, so life was very tight. Most local young and middle-aged laborers relied on going out to work to earn money and support their families. But Wang Songyu was already almost 50 at that time and could not do heavy work. One day in 1999, Wang Songyu, whose life was difficult, went to see Nie Chengbo, then Party secretary of Tumen Town, and expressed his wish to grow greenhouse vegetables but said he lacked funds. Nie Chengbo immediately expressed support and lent him 6,000 yuan to help him develop the vegetable industry. With the support of town and village cadres, Wang Songyu built 2 warm sheds that year and tried growing greenhouse vegetables. But due to a lack of technology, poor management and care, and the fact that the technician hired by the town from Shouguang, Shandong, lacked a sense of responsibility, his income from selling vegetables in the first two years was not even enough to cover the cost of building the sheds. 

    In those years, Wang Songyu's family was not the only one losing money growing vegetables, and some local vegetable farmers gave up growing vegetables one after another. "There are always tricks to growing vegetables. If you grow them, you have to make a success of it." After suffering losses for two consecutive years, Wang Songyu resolutely planted vegetables for a third year. From then on, he began to explore vegetable-growing techniques, sum up and accumulate experience in growing vegetables, and humbly sought advice from agricultural technicians and experienced older farmers. 

    Through persistent learning and hard study, Wang Songyu mastered the skills of scientific vegetable planting and management, such as knowing that when rainy or snowy weather occurs, the vegetables in the shed will get sick without sunlight, and thinking over whether to spray pesticides or apply topdressing when the weather improved; when was the most reasonable time to open and close the vents in the warm shed? He could even explore the cause of some vegetable disease cases that some town agricultural technicians did not understand and apply scientific remedial measures... He also actively experimented - reasonably arranging crop rotations in the shed to maximize greenhouse efficiency; always planting seedlings at the most suitable time and seizing the best marketing time to sell... 

    Through difficult exploration and effort, Wang Songyu's vegetables were grown better and better. Today, although Wang Songyu has not created his own brand, his vegetables themselves are a convincing calling card, and he long ago firmly pasted it in people's hearts - for many years, Wang Songyu's fresh vegetables have steadily supplied the vegetable market in Tumen market town, the owners of several restaurants and eateries go to his vegetable shed every few days to pick vegetables themselves, and vegetable vendors from Xiangkou Township, Yunxi County, also often come to buy. Thus, in the off-season, his vegetables sell out without leaving home; and in the peak season, at around 4:30 every morning, when the tricycle he hired appears in Yunxi county town full of fresh vegetables, usually before the vehicle has even stopped, the waiting vegetable vendors rush up and snap up all his vegetables. For many years, Wang Songyu has used his own practical actions to continue writing the story of "Tumen fresh vegetables, loved by all who see them." 

    Starting in 2001, Wang Songyu's income from selling vegetables increased year by year, and the scale of his vegetable growing also continued to expand. Over 10 years, his cumulative income from selling vegetables has exceeded 300,000 yuan, making him the leading large vegetable production and marketing household locally. In 2007, with his savings from selling vegetables, he and a neighbor jointly built a new building. The apartment he lives in cost more than 100,000 yuan including construction and decoration, and some high-end furniture and appliances were also purchased for the new home.

    After Wang Songyu's vegetable industry flourished, he gradually became a well-known wealth-building star near and far. In recent years, media in Shiyan City and Yunxi County have repeatedly reported on his deeds of developing a distinctive industry and becoming prosperous, and local people have come to his door one after another to learn from him or ask him to pass on techniques. At the end of September 2008, as a representative of Yunxi County's vegetable industry, he was commended by the county people's government and awarded the title of "Leader in Becoming Prosperous through an Agricultural Characteristic Industry." In the past two years, some leaders from the local city and county have visited his vegetable plot from time to time for inspections or research, and people from surrounding counties and townships also often go to observe and learn at Wang Songyu's and his Tumen Village greenhouse vegetable industry base.