Yang Qing: grow lotus root and bring the villagers to get rich together

Yang Qing and his Xinghe vegetable planting cooperative planting base.

At the end of February this year, Yang Qingrong of Pengxi County was awarded the honorary title of "Star of Sichuan Province returning to his hometown to start a Business".

When he was young, Yang Qing used to ride tricycles, sold vegetables and fruits, and worked in coastal areas for many years, but his entrepreneurial craze was never extinguished. In 2014, he raised more than 5 million yuan, set up a professional agricultural planting cooperative in his hometown, and began to grow lotus root and develop rural tourism, driving more than 300 villagers in his hometown to develop industries and become rich.

From vegetable vendors to entrepreneurs

Yang Qing, 45 years old, is from Chicheng Town, Pengxi County. He once stepped on a tricycle in his hometown and worked out of town for several years. In 2006, he also ran farm music, planting fruit trees and digging fish ponds to raise fish. In the following years, Yang Qing, who was not satisfied with the status quo, began to transport vegetables, purchasing vegetables from Chengdu, Mianyang and Suining to Pengxi County and becoming a small vegetable vendor.

A few years ago, because of the lack of professional bases for growing vegetables around Pengxi County, the non-local vegetables in the county farmers' market were very popular. Yang Qing believes that he can take this opportunity to realize his long-cherished wish of starting a business, but he suffers from not having enough primitive accumulated funds to start his own entrepreneurial project. In the second half of 2013, when Yang Qing returned home from other places, a good friend who planted and sold lotus root approached him, hoping that Yang Qing could invest in his own lotus root plantation. At that time, the two hit it off and decided to set up a professional planting cooperative and began to grow lotus root.

In 2014, Yang Qing responded to the policy call of the hometown government to actively guide migrant workers and businessmen to return to their hometown to start a business, took out more than 1.6 million yuan in savings at home, obtained nearly 2 million yuan in loans, borrowed more than 1.4 million yuan from relatives and friends, and raised a total of more than 5 million yuan. On September 18, 2014, Yang Qing's Xinghe vegetable planting Cooperative in Pengxi County was officially established.

Get the support of the villagers to lease a thousand mu of land.

At the beginning of the establishment of the cooperative, Yang Qing contracted 500 mu of land, and relying on his friends' experience in planting lotus root for many years, the two began to store water in two barren gullies in their hometown and grow high-quality varieties of lotus root. Soon, Yang Qing and his partners were plagued by problems such as lack of funds, lack of land, and flooding of lotus root fields in the valley of the Fujiang River during the flood season.

"if you choose to start a business, you have to stick to it." Relying on his persistent entrepreneurial belief, Yang Qing worked hard in the cooperative planting base every day, and his efforts finally won the support of the party committee and government of Mingfeng Town, Pengxi County, as well as the relevant agricultural departments of Pengxi County. the local government departments gave him the best entrepreneurial support policies and targeted measures to lease hundreds of mu of land to Yang Qing's cooperatives.

Yang Qing told Sichuan News Network that at the beginning of his business, some of his neighbors did not support him and hindered his behavior of leasing land. Yang Qing paid a certain amount of compensation in addition to paying the rent for the villagers' land. The local 16-year-old wanted more rent and was unwilling to lease his own land. Yang Qing visited the house three times, each time compensating the elderly for some cash and daily necessities. In the end, Yang Qing's sincerity moved the villagers in his hometown and gradually gained the villagers' understanding and support.

In April 2015, the lotus root planted by the cooperative was harvested for the first time. When the new variety was planted on the raw land for the first time, the yield of lotus root was not high, with a harvest of only 1 million jin and a profit of more than 2 million yuan. In 2016, the output of lotus root reached more than 2 million jin, and the income increased a lot. While planting lotus root, Yang Qing strengthened the construction of cooperative planting base supporting facilities. at present, the cooperative has developed into a rural tourism and leisure land with a circulation area of more than 1000 mu and a collection of sightseeing, fishing, leisure and catering.

Drive the development of more than 300 farmers in their hometown

Today, through his efforts, Yang Qing has changed the original face of poverty in his hometown, and many young people who work in other places no longer go out and stay in their hometown to develop the planting industry. "some farmers who used to work in my cooperative, after learning professional planting and management skills, went home to contract their own land and started planting lotus root." Yang Qing said that cooperatives can bring considerable benefits to local villagers every year. He calculated an account with the reporter: a worker in a cooperative can earn more than 200 yuan a day, and members who take part in digging lotus root can earn 80,000 yuan after a whole year of work, which is much better than working in other places.

At present, the professional cooperative of Xinghe vegetable planting in Pengxi County has 324 members and more than 70 permanent members all the year round. The cooperative has promoted the development of more than 300 local peasant households and placed more than 200 urban and rural surplus labor force in employment, increasing the average monthly income of local villagers by more than 1500 yuan. As the cooperative helped more than 200 local villagers find jobs nearby, Yang Qing also provided technical support for villagers to grow lotus root. Therefore, in November 2015, his cooperative was awarded the title and license of "demonstration base for migrant workers and businessmen returning home to start a business" by the people's Government of Pengxi County.

Now, in the two barren gullies in Qixing Village, Mingfeng Town, where the cooperative base is located, more than a thousand mu of lotus fields are in full bloom every year at the height of summer, fat carp swim happily under the lotus leaves, and tourists row bamboo rafts and flow with water, as if they were in an ink painting. On July 9, 2016, the cooperative became the "photography creation base" of the photographers' Association of Suining City and Pengxi County, and successfully held the first Lotus and Rural Tourism Festival of Pengxi County on July 9 of the same year.

Create a rural tourism destination to make more villagers rich

It is reported that Qixing Village in Mingfeng Town is only 3 kilometers away from Chicheng Town in Pengxi County, which is known as the nickname of "back Garden" in Pengxi County. In the past, the traffic conditions here were not good, and many people still came here for an outing. In recent years, with the local government making great efforts to build the village infrastructure, the village road was widened to 5 meters at the end of last year, so that most vehicles can enter Qixing Village and go directly to the cooperative planting base to enjoy lotus flowers and taste lotus root field carp.

Yang Qing said that at present, the market price of field lotus root is low, and this year he plans to change the variety of field lotus root to one that has a long flowering period, is convenient for viewing and is easy to bear lotus seeds. In this way, "you can see the lotus for several months a year." Yang Qing said that changing the planting strategy of cooperatives has not only saved manpower and management costs, but also laid the foundation for cooperatives to develop rural tourism spots.

"the development of rural tourism can not only bring benefits, but also make all the villagers around the base rich together." In January this year, Yang Qing built a residential house in the planting base and built a parking lot, ready to run farm music. There are more than 10 beds in the hostel, which can receive more than 100 tourists every day. In addition, Yang Qing has started the second phase of the cooperative project, continue to expand the planting scale of high-quality ornamental lotus, improve the supporting facilities for rural leisure tourism, and make use of the geographical advantages of the base to build it into a rural tourism and leisure destination in Pengxi County.