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The rice in the field has turned yellow and then green, green and then yellow again.
For many people, 40 is a watershed in life. For Yang Yulong, no matter how many years have passed or for a longer period in the future, he will always choose to take root in this land beneath his feet.
Let’s listen together to Yang Yulong, the chairman of Nanjing Chenhu Ecological Agricultural Technology Co., LTD., tell the story of farming.
I prefer people to just call me “farmer” directly.
“Chairman of Nanjing Chenhu Ecological Agricultural Technology Co., LTD.” – Every time I’m addressed like this, I always feel a bit uncomfortable. Actually, I prefer people to just call me “farmer” directly.
Some people might think the word “farming” is a bit “rustic”, but I have never thought so. On the contrary, I think being able to cultivate the land well and ensure food security is a particularly “cool” and meaningful thing.
“Chinese people must firmly hold their rice bowls in their own hands.” ” When I heard this sentence, I had already decided what to do.
I’m from Xinqiang Village, Yaxi Sub-district. I grew up in the countryside since childhood and have a deep affection for the land. Influenced by my father, after graduating from university, I returned to my village and started working in grain processing.
But during those years, seeing the young people in the village go out to work one after another, and the vast stretches of fertile land being abandoned and overgrown with weeds, I felt very bad. So in 2015, I made up my mind and contracted over a thousand mu of land around as a pilot project to start growing rice, rapeseed and wheat.
My ideal was full and rich, but reality taught me a hard lesson.
To be honest, I feel a bit embarrassed. Although my family is engaged in grain processing, I’m a “theorist” and have never personally grown rice in the fields. During that period, I was under so much pressure that I often suffered from insomnia. Equipment, technology and funds – none of them were against me. Sometimes, even in the middle of the night, I still wander around the fields, constantly asking myself in my heart: Have I chosen the right path?
Fortunately, we didn’t give up.
I worked hard with several members for three years. Not only did we expand the planting area from 1,000 mu to over 3,000 mu, but we also completed a major upgrade from “traditional manual labor” to “full mechanization”! After mechanization, the efficiency was significantly different. Labor was saved, and both output and quality were improved. In 2018, we officially established Nanjing Chenhu Ecological Agricultural Technology Co., LTD.
As the scale expands, new challenges arise.
How can we sell rice at a good price and help more farmers get rich together?
In 2020, we began to implement the “order-based planting model”. In simple terms, we have changed from the service provider to the service provider. Family farms and farmers grow rice according to our demands, and we uniformly purchase, process and sell it. In this way, they won’t have to worry about selling, and we also have a stable source of grain.
After the order model in 2003, the results were quite good, but we still believe that the quality of the rice can be “improved to a higher level”. In 2023, we took the lead in establishing the “Nanjing Chenhu Agricultural Industrialization Consortium”, adopting an operation model of “company + cooperative + family farm + farmers”.
Led by our company, we provide unified agricultural supplies and implement an integrated processing and sales system. As a connecting link, farmers’ cooperatives provide services and convey information. Family farms and farmers form the foundation of a consortium and carry out planting in accordance with standards.
In this way, the added value of each link in the industrial chain has been enhanced. More importantly, the income of farmers has actually increased! Today, the consortium covers an area of 20,000 mu and can provide consumers with a safe, healthy and rich variety of rice product chains.
What moves me the most is not only the evolution of the model but also the upgrading of agricultural equipment.
When we first started, we still used traditional agricultural machinery. But now, we have a production line capable of drying 200 tons of grain per day, a processing line for 300 tons of rice per day, over 30 sets of agricultural machinery such as tractors, transplanters and harvesters, a warehouse of over 4,000 square meters, and a grain storage capacity of over 8,000 tons alone.
Agriculture is becoming increasingly intelligent and efficient. This year, we have newly added a rice color sorter equipped with far-infrared function. It can precisely identify and remove even the tateest defective grains, further ensuring the quality and safety of the rice.
At present, the “Chenhu” brand rice we produce has been rated as a high-quality rice in Jiangsu Province and a product trusted by consumers. Every time I see the plump and shiny grains of rice packaged and leaving the factory, I feel particularly at ease.
Many people say that agriculture is hard. Yes, farming is indeed not easy. But when you truly bend down, you will understand the saying, “The land will never let down the sweat!”
My hometown needs new farmers, and agriculture requires young eyes, modern thinking and a mindset that is not afraid of hardship. I will keep going down this road.
