Huang Zhirong: Cultivating on the Land of His Second Hometown

    Recently, amid festive drum music, 41-year-old Huang Zhirong from Yibin, Sichuan, and his partners hung a sign reading Cangnan County Oun-an Vegetable Planting Professional Cooperative high on the wall, realizing his first entrepreneurial dream on foreign soil.

In the fields of his second hometown, Huang Zhirong realized his entrepreneurial dream.


Under Huang Zhirong's guidance, young Sichuan native Wan Dacheng went into the fields and found work that suited him.


Fellow Sichuan native Huang Zhigui (first from right) tasted the joy of a bountiful harvest with Huang Zhirong's help.

In 1994, Huang Zhirong came to Cangnan County with simple luggage to seek a path to prosperity, spending every day in sweat and toil. In the summer of 2001, he returned home from work and suddenly noticed a large patch of farmland overgrown with weeds by the roadside. Upon inquiring, he learned it had become that way because no one was cultivating it. It was such a pity for such good land to lie fallow. If it were mine, I would definitely turn it into a treasure bowl. Having thought of it, he acted. Huang Zhirong began asking around for land, and finally used 700 yuan that he had saved from skimping on food and clothing to contract 5 mu of farmland to grow vegetables.

In the first three years, Huang Zhirong did not fare smoothly in his operation, losing money rather than making it, but he did not lose heart. He expanded the contracted land area to more than 70 mu and sought instruction from experts everywhere. Hard work pays off. Starting from the fourth year, Huang Zhirong made money, and quite a lot of it. He then expanded his planting area to more than 130 mu through various land transfer forms such as contracting and sub-contracting, and hired more than 10 helpers.

Huang Zhirong's success drew the attention of fellow Sichuan natives, and people began coming to him for advice. Warm-hearted as he was, he often put down his own work to help his fellow townsmen contact land for contracting and teach them vegetable-growing techniques. Huang Zhigui was one of the earliest Sichuan natives to follow Huang Zhirong in learning to grow vegetables, and now he has contracted 30 mu of farmland. When a reporter asked him how much income he had in a year, he said with a smile, "Not bad, much better than working for others." Huang Zhirong quietly said to the side, "Although the couple works very hard all year, their income is no less than 100,000 yuan."

As more and more people came to him, Huang Zhirong became even busier, rushing about all day in townships such as Yishan, Qianku and Haicheng. "Why not just set up a vegetable cooperative?" At the suggestion of friends, Huang Zhirong joined hands with Taishun migrant Zhang Qingsong and several local villagers to establish the Cangnan County Oun-an Vegetable Planting Professional Cooperative, specifically providing services such as fertilizer, seeds, production technology and vegetable purchasing for those who contract farmland to grow vegetables. "Next I will also set up a planting demonstration base and a vegetable processing factory." Huang Zhirong has begun busying himself again for a new life dream.