Stories of Getting Rich through Metallurgy: Part 7 of the Series on College Students Starting Businesses in Rural Areas
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Du Xiang, a “regret-free youth” who loves and is committed to agriculture My name is Du Xiang, and I graduated from the College of Animal Science and Technology at Huazhong Agricultural University. In 2003, as a selected graduate, I came to work in Dachang Town, Jiaonan City, Shandong Province. I was born into a poor farming family. My mother gave birth to several daughters before she finally had me, her precious child. Due to poverty, the girls in the village all went to work as nannies elsewhere. To find me a wife, my parents spent a full ten years cutting down half a mountain and digging three cave dwellings. Even when I was still in middle school, my parents began to arrange for me to get married. But I didn’t want to bear a heavy family burden so early on; through my own efforts, I made it to university. Upon graduation, I was selected as a trainee officer by the Organization Department of Jiaonan Municipal Party Committee.
I was assigned to work in the poor town of Dachang in the west, where I am responsible for the agricultural production there. To get familiar with the situation as quickly as possible, I bought an old bicycle and spent a month visiting all 87 administrative villages in the town, thereby gaining a basic understanding of the agricultural production conditions in each village. Dachang Town has a weak agricultural foundation, and farmers have low incomes. The main reason is the extremely low level of agricultural industrialization. I have decided to take the development of ecological agriculture as a starting point to foster brand-based agriculture. After conducting research, I created the town’s first agricultural industry development plan. To develop ecological agriculture, necessary environmental conditions must first be in place. Agricultural experts conducted environmental tests in the villages located in the southern part of Dachang Town, and all indicators met the **standards. In 2004, we planned to establish a 20,000-mu pollution-free vegetable cultivation base. In 2005, a 2,000-mu green food production base was established. In 2006, 5 more organic food production bases for potatoes, radishes, and others were established. The city also awarded 1.2 million yuan as a fund for the development of agricultural brands. Over the course of three years, Dachang Town rose from being among the lowest-ranked in the city’s agricultural assessments in 2003 to becoming the number one in 2006.
In July 2004, I was appointed as the director of the Fengdun Management Area in Dachang Town. The first thing to do upon taking office was a special campaign for environmental improvement. Yinjiazhuang Village has the worst environment in the entire town; the local residents do not understand the need for improvement efforts, and the officials do not cooperate, making the work extremely difficult. From morning to night, I went from house to house trying to persuade people, but it yielded no results at all. Later, I presided over two **cadre meetings, explaining in detail to them the methods and approaches of South Korea’s New Village Movement, and analyzing the harms of the “three piles.” The next morning, I saw an elderly man in his 70s cleaning up in front of his house; the party branch **voluntarily demolished its own illegal firewood shed, and other officials as well as some residents also began to clean up around their own homes on their own initiative. Last year, Dachang Town was named a “National Town with Beautiful Environment”.
In the blink of an eye, I have been working in Dachang Town for over three years. Now, with the development of the economy, my salary has also increased several times over. Now, I have found my kind and gentle wife in Oba. I am full of confidence in Oba’s future, and even more so in my own future.