Realize the farmer's dream of becoming rich in a wheelchair

Li Xiaomei (front) is checking the growth of potatoes.

Li Xiaomei is a household name in Weiyuan County, Gansu Province, known as "the hometown of improved Potato varieties in China". This is not only because she is a "big boss" in a wheelchair, people talk about her with more respect, because her business is connected to thousands of families.

In 2002, Li Xiaomei took out all her savings from her previous clinic and raised 150000 yuan to buy an abandoned local food processing plant. In this old factory area, she built three plastic sheds and began to plant Gastrodia elata on an experimental basis. In the eyes of others, Li Xiaomei, who is "fussy and studious," runs an outpatient clinic while growing medicinal materials. A few years later, factories and warehouses were gradually built.

Li Xiaomei, with a unique vision, did not satisfy her immediate success. centering on her own medicine base, she led more than 200 farmers in nearby villages to plant Gastrodia elata, traditional Codonopsis pilosula, Radix Astragali and other traditional Chinese herbal medicines, forming a small-scale planting base and establishing the Gastrodia Association. Under the influence of Li Xiaomei, people in Huichuan Town planted traditional Chinese medicine one after another, and the planting area of traditional Chinese medicine grew from 3000 mu to 6000 mu. The economic benefits brought to farmers by medicinal materials alone amount to more than 50 million yuan a year.

Just when business was getting better, in 2008, a sudden car accident befell Li Xiaomei, unable to stand up with injured legs. But Li Xiaomei, who has a strong nature, is not discouraged, like ao Xue Han Mei, she is not reconciled to the arrangement of fate.

The car accident put Li Xiaomei in a wheelchair, but she is still a strong runner in her heart. "I don't admit defeat, but I have to do better and benefit more people."

Subsequently, Li Xiaomei raised more than 2 million yuan to register to establish a cooperative for improved potato varieties. In 2011, she built 100 solar greenhouses for potato seedlings, 2 1500-ton potato storage cellars and 1000 square meters of air-conditioned storage in Xincheng Village, Huichuan Town. In 2012, she invested 27 million yuan to build an intelligent multi-span greenhouse of 23000 square meters, and built a high-quality potato breeding base of 2500 mu and 5000 mu in Huichuan Town, Wuzhu Town and other places. Annual production of tissue culture virus-free seedlings 80 million plants, original seeds 120 million, original potato 5000 tons, improved varieties about 10000 tons.

At present, although Gansu Tiandi Agricultural Science and Technology Company has only 68 employees, it has 1200 cooperative members. In line with the cooperative principle of "running by the people, managing by the people and benefiting the people", Li Xiaomei and her Gansu Field Agricultural Science and Technology Company, in accordance with the management mode of unified seed supply, unified management, unified purchase, unified storage and unified sales, organize and drive the people throughout the county to carry out the expansion and propagation of the original and first-class improved varieties of potato, and adopt the model of "companies (cooperatives) with members and members with farmers". The company signs orders with cooperative members and farmers, and the company releases potato seeds for members and farmers free of charge, driving more than 2500 local farmers every year, with an average income of more than 5000 yuan. Through the standardization, specialization and standardization of "cooperatives + bases + farmers", the improved varieties of potatoes in Weiyuan County are continuously transported to all parts of the country.

"this year, there are 6000 mu of original potato seeds and 2500 mu of first-class seed bases, which are mainly sold to Guizhou, Inner Mongolia, * * and other major potato-growing provinces. Last year, the company's output value reached 50 million yuan." Li Xiaomei told reporters that she not only led farmers to plant improved potato varieties, but also met a large number of migrant needs of local farmers. "in our own base alone, more than 10,000 people are employed every year."

Wang Yongshou and his wife from Nangou Village, Huichuan Town, work in Li Xiaomei's potato seed base all the year round, and they also grow 10 mu of original potato seeds. "the two of us can earn about NT $70,000 to NT $80,000 a year in the field company. when we have a lot of work in our fields, we take a leave from our boss and go back to work." Wang Yongshou's words are full of gratitude: "my own ten mu of land can earn more than 40,000 yuan a year, and more than 100000 of this year's income depends on Li Xiaomei and the Land Company."

Li Xiaomei has won many honors for her efforts. In 2014, she was named as an advanced individual in poverty alleviation in the national society, and this year she was shortlisted for the preliminary evaluation of the 2015 China Poverty Eradication Award.