Young woman from north China’s Hebei brings benefits to villagers in her hometown through vegetable seedling cultivation

Zhang Shasha, born in the 1990s, has brought benefits to villagers in her hometown in Suning county, Cangzhou city of north China’s Hebei Province through her efforts in vegetable seedling cultivation.

Zhang secured a comfortable job in a company in the province’s Langfang city after graduating from college. Eyeing the great potential of the agricultural sector in her hometown, she quit her job and began to learn about vegetable seedling cultivation from scratch in her family’s vegetable planting cooperative.

Zhang Shasha, a young woman from Suning county, Cangzhou city of north China’s Hebei Province, shows a certificate of her patent on a utility model. (Photo courtesy of the interviewee)

“Back then, I learned about vegetable seedling cultivation and field management every day in greenhouses,” Zhang said, adding that she also tried new operational modes of the cooperative.

After conducting a market survey, Zhang found that the market lacked superior vegetable varieties. Therefore, she suggested building high-standard greenhouses for seedling cultivation that covers an area of 15,000 square meters and 20,000-square-meter multi-span glass greenhouses for seedling cultivation. In addition, Zhang introduced advanced automatic sowing facilities and over 20 new vegetable varieties from famous domestic and foreign seed companies.

“So far, more than 50 vegetable varieties have been cultivated in my four multi-span greenhouses for seedling cultivation. Merchants from other places come to purchase our seedlings almost every day,” Zhang said.

In recent years, Zhang has filed nine applications for patents on utility models and become an “expert in seedling cultivation” widely recognized by villagers, many of whom have joined the cooperative and learned planting skills.

As of June this year, the planting area of the cooperative had expanded to 500 mu (about 33.3 hectares); and the number of members of the cooperative had exceeded 600.

Zhang Shasha checks the growth of vegetables at a greenhouse. (Chinanews.com/Song Zhimin)

Wang Jianchuan, a 68-year-old member of the cooperative, has a full-time job in the cooperative and earns a monthly salary of 3,000 yuan (about $443.3) to 4,000 yuan. Given the relatively easy work and his age, Wang was content with the salary.

“I hope to work together with more farmers to make the seedling cultivation business bigger and build a better future for rural areas. I believe that more young people will contribute to rural vitalization,” Zhang said.