Grow purple yam and get rich in my hometown.

The purple yam planted by Zhang Hong.

At 10:00 in the morning on October 9th, light rain moistens the land of Shouxiang. In the endless purple yam planting base, Zhang Hong and the workers pulled the green net to build the fence. When he received an order call, Zhang Hong smiled happily and worked harder. "if you plant purple yam, we will get rich together." Talking about the original intention of returning to his hometown to start a business, Zhang Hong said.

Lock the project and return to entrepreneurship.

Zhang Hong is a 40-year-old native of Wuyang Town, Pengshan District. Born into a peasant family, he has had a special feeling for the land since he was a child. Because of his conscientiousness and ambition, he became the production captain at the age of 17.

Zhang Hong is a person who is dissatisfied with the status quo and willing to challenge new things. In order to improve his family's life, while growing oranges, he learned the skills of motorcycle maintenance, repairing and selling motorcycles. Later, with the emergence of the "peasant labor unrest", he also went to work in Jiangsu and Zhejiang "fashionably". During his 10 years of wandering abroad, he changed from an ordinary migrant worker to a "contractor" for high-speed rail projects, with an annual income of nearly 200000 yuan.

The income is good, but Zhang Hong is particularly homesick because he has been working abroad for a long time. I wanted to go back to starting a business, but I didn't find a suitable project until 2013, when the opportunity came.

"at that time, I found purple yam in a big supermarket in Shanghai and was immediately attracted by it. I was startled when I saw that the price of purple yam was 40 yuan per kilogram. I have never seen this kind of yam before, and I am very interested. " Zhang Hong said that he learned about the characteristics and market prospects of purple yam through the Internet. "thinking that there is very little purple yam on the market, many people in my hometown have never seen it, so I want to go back to my hometown to plant it, so that my folks can also eat this healthy food." Zhang Hong said.

At the end of 2013, after some inspection, Zhang Hong decided to go back to his hometown in Pengshan to plant purple yam. In order to learn planting techniques, introduced by a friend, Zhang Hong studied in an agricultural company in Guang'an for three months, and then returned to Pengshan with entrepreneurial passion.

"more than 200 mu of land has been transferred in Wuyang town." Zhang Hong said that after asking experts to test the soil, he took out all his savings and started his business. When there was not enough money, he borrowed it from his friends and relatives. After unremitting efforts, Zishan medicine was finally successfully planted in October 2014.

Innovative methods to increase production and income

This year, in order to improve quality and increase efficiency, Zhang Hong also innovated planting methods. "the branches and leaves of purple yam are very luxuriant and need bracing. In the first year, I used the traditional bamboo pole support method, which was both unstable and expensive. Later, after many practices and investigations, I got inspiration from Pengshan's grape trellis and used cement piles and iron wire to make the branches and leaves of purple yam climb. I didn't expect it to be quite successful, and it will save a lot of money in the long run. " Zhang Hong said that with this method, the per mu yield of purple yam is expected to increase by several hundred jin this year.

There is no end to innovation. In practice, Zhang Hong also placed a custom-made horizontal setting slot on the rhizome of each purple yam. "in this way, the purple yam will grow horizontally, and the mining efficiency will be greatly improved when it is mature." Zhang Hong said.

"now the purple yam is basically mature, and customers will come to dig it in a few days." Zhang Hong said that the output of purple yam is expected to reach 500000 kilograms this year, with a wholesale price of more than 12 yuan per kilogram.

Aim at the target and keep moving.

It is Zhang Hong's original intention and the direction of his efforts to return to starting a business, to get rich himself, and to drive his fellow villagers to become rich together. Today, during the season of planting and harvesting purple yam, more than 100 villagers work in his base. He pays his fellow-townsmen more than 100000 yuan a month.

Zhang Hong's goal is to drive more people to plant purple yam, to provide seeds and technical services for more people, so that all Meishan people can understand purple yam and eat purple yam. "next year, I will expand the plant to 1000 mu, and I plan to build an air-conditioned library to deeply process purple yam to make purple yam powder, purple yam pastry, and then push purple yam to the whole country." Speaking of the road of future development, Zhang Hong is full of confidence.

To this end, as a "boss", he has been working hard. He arrived at the planting base at 06:30 every morning, went home for lunch, and hurried to the field. A worker joked with him: "Why is your boss here earlier than us?" Zhang Hong always said with a smile that only by doing it himself can we have plenty of food and clothing. With this drive and effort, we believe that Zhang Hong's dream will be realized ahead of schedule.