Hu Sanli - A Pathfinder Who Became Wealthy by Growing Flowers and Nursery Stock

    Hu Sanli is the director of the village committee of Xingfu Village, Yaoshan Township, Chun'an County, Zhejiang Province. After he was pushed into this position nine years ago, he set an example in every way, took the trust placed in him by his superiors and the local elders and fellow villagers as the driving force for his work, and made it his mission to lead the people to prosperity. By connecting with the actual conditions of his village, he found a path to wealth. He set an example for leading the people to start businesses, escape poverty, become prosperous, and achieve a moderately prosperous life, and won praise from the Party committee and government of Yaoshan Township as well as local cadres and villagers. 

Since becoming village committee director, Hu Sanli has always kept the people in his heart and has thought of every possible way to help villagers increase their income and become wealthy. He believes that the traditional products of Xingfu Village are hickory nuts and Cornus officinalis, which are the pillar economy on which farmers depend for survival and are traditional products left by their ancestors, and they must certainly be made bigger and stronger. Apart from large areas of mountain forest, Xingfu Village also has quite a lot of dry land and paddy fields. On the basis of doing good market research, he believed that growing flowers and nursery stock was a good way for farmers to increase their income and become wealthy, so he chose to grow flowers and nursery stock and used this to lead the people to prosperity.  

He successively went to flower and nursery stock markets in Hangzhou, Suzhou and other places to inspect and learn from experience, bought a large number of technical books on growing flowers and nursery stock, learned while doing, first carried out experiments in his own contracted field, and then promoted the practice. Once the growing techniques were up to standard, through an introduction by an acquaintance he signed a joint-operation buyback contract with Zhejiang Senmu Company, so that the flowers and nursery stock he grew found a sales outlet. At present he already has 35 mu of various nursery stock (1 mu = 667 sq m, the same below), totaling 120,000 plants. The varieties include more than ten kinds, such as Manglietia insignis, Michelia foveolata, Yunnan camellia, Loropetalum chinense var. rubrum, hickory seedlings, Nandina domestica, osmanthus, camphor tree, and Goldenrain tree. The annual income reaches more than 70,000 yuan.  

Under his leadership, the whole village has already planted more than 120 mu of flowers and nursery stock such as Nandina domestica, and this has also spread to neighboring villages. Hu Sanli also provides a whole series of services for farmers growing flowers and nursery stock, from selection to seedling cultivation and management, and to the sale of finished nursery stock. He paired up with impoverished households. With Hu Sanli's leadership and help, villager Hu Yunfu's income from Nandina domestica alone in 2003 reached 50,000 yuan, and he shed the label of impoverished household.  

Hu Sanli not only achieved remarkable results in flowers and nursery stock, but also achieved considerable benefits in breeding. Since 2003 he has invested in raising more than 200 Boer goats and 300 Sanhuang chickens, and the two together bring an annual income of more than 120,000 yuan. Since 2003 he has many times been rated as an "Outstanding Communist Party Member" and "Advanced Worker" by the Party committee and government of Yaoshan Township.