Wenzhou's Grain-Growing Champion Chen Qingfu's Experience in Grain Production

    Chen Qingfu, a major grain grower in Wenzhou, shifted from the business world to the farm, transforming from a businessman into a professional farmer who understands management and the market. He changed the traditional notion that farmers are inferior to businessmen, consolidated idle and even abandoned land into usable plots, and the localized land transfer policy has become a new highlight of Wenzhou's private economy.

In the fields, Chen Qingfu busily uses his mobile phone to coordinate the operations of each stage. Photo by Zhao Yong (Image source: Wenzhou Agricultural Information Network)

Recently, the early rice variety "Zhongjiazao 17" planted by Chen Qingfu, a major grain grower in Feiyun Town, Ruian City, Wenzhou, reached a maximum per-unit yield of 658.9 kg, breaking the record of 624.9 kg per unit in Zhejiang Province that he himself set last year, making him a truly deserving grain-growing expert in the area.

In Zhejiang, Wenzhou is a typical grain-deficient area, with a per capita arable land area of only 0.31 mu. Wenzhou's annual grain demand reaches 4.8 billion jin, while its own grain production is only 1.8 billion jin, with a self-sufficiency rate of only about 35%. In addition, the developed private economy has led many Wenzhou people to choose to go into business rather than make a living from a small plot of land. Under such circumstances, local farmers' enthusiasm for growing grain has continued to decline in recent years, and grain production, especially early rice production, has shown a trend of consecutive years of decline.

Chen Qingfu, a grain-growing expert, was once a genuine Wenzhou businessman. With years of experience in the business world, Chen Qingfu saw business opportunities in the rural land market. Chen Qingfu told a reporter from China Industry and Economy News that doing business now is very different from before, and competition in every industry is fierce. Comparatively speaking, rural areas have a relatively broad market, and whoever can seize the opportunity first can secure a place in future competition.

Having an idea is one thing, but how to put it into practice is the key. It was also at this time that the No. 1 Central Document focused on agricultural development and rural reform issues for 6 consecutive years. How to revitalize rural land, realize land transfer, and solve Wenzhou's grain shortage problem was put on the local government's agenda. It became a consensus among many local people that the development of the rural land market should, like Wenzhou's private economy, strive to be a national leader.

In June 2007, Chen Qingfu and 6 farmers from the village spontaneously established the Ruian City Bethel Grain Professional Cooperative, and through a bidding process contracted 1,500 mu of the villagers' paddy fields at a price 10 to 15 yuan per mu higher than the local market price, mainly providing grain and vegetable planting and sales services. Last year, Chen Qingfu's early rice per-unit yield reached 624.9 kg, making him Zhejiang Province's grain-growing "champion." This year, the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Agriculture organized experts to conduct an actual harvesting and yield measurement inspection of Chen Qingfu's high-yield demonstration field for new early rice varieties. The maximum per-unit yield of the early rice "Zhongjiazao 17" reached 658.9 kg, an increase of 34 kg over last year's maximum per-unit yield, and total grain output also reached more than 1 million kg.

Shen Changcheng, deputy mayor of Feiyun Town, Ruian City, told a reporter from China Industry and Economy News that in order to further adjust the agricultural structure, accelerate land transfer, and let farmers feel that farming, like running a factory, can generate benefits, Feiyun Town is actively building a 10,000-mu grain production functional zone, realizing industrialized management of land, letting farmers truly become the masters of the land, and operating the land as capital.