1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 344 Slander
The first batch of vegetable seedlings in plug trays at Yunling Agriculture Yuanmou Seedling Farm have already reached the planting standard.

These are all winter and early-season vegetables grown in Yuanmou, such as cucumbers, tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers, in order to facilitate their promotion.

However, the result was not as expected.

By the time Chen Jiazhi arrived, the entire seedling nursery had not sold a single seedling to the farmers.

Even if seedlings are provided to farmers for free, they still have doubts and are unwilling to use them.

Therefore, after arriving in Yuanmou, Chen Jiazhi went to the site to investigate the situation of the vegetable production area.

It just so happened that Ma Ming was also at Neng Yu's vegetable base, which led to the conversation between the two.

Chen Jiazhi's original plan was to open up sales channels by supplying vegetable seedlings.

However, the reality is that winter seed production of vegetables in Yuanmou is currently a niche area, and there are not many seed companies that come to breed and produce vegetable seeds each year. The most common crops for winter seed production are highland barley and wheat.

This limits the market.

Moreover, this was the seedling nursery's first year, and it had no customer base. The communication beforehand was also inadequate. By the time the seedling nursery came to them, most of the seed breeding units and farmers had already started sowing and seedling cultivation on their own.

It's too late to sell the seedlings now.

Neither breeding and propagation units nor farmers are willing to spend a second penny to buy seedlings.

Even if it's free, many people don't want to waste the seedlings they've cultivated themselves, not to mention they wonder if something good can be found for free.
Under such circumstances, it is quite normal that the seedlings cannot be sold.

Xue Jun once again came to Yuanmou with Chen Jiazhi and followed him throughout the entire trip. He muttered to himself, "Actually, we should have provided the seedlings for free from the beginning. If more farmers had planted them, the promotion would have been more effective."

Although no seedlings were sold, thanks to the free seedlings and the promotion by Wang Yongxiang, Gao Wei and others, a few farmers whose own seedlings had problems planted vegetable seedlings from the nursery.

It's just that the quantity is not large.

Chen Jiazhi turned around and said, "Let's not say anything that could affect unity. The current situation was expected."

It must be admitted that his decision was a bit ahead of its time. Yuanmou's vegetable planting industry has fallen behind by half a step, and vegetable breeding and propagation have not yet been included in the government's key work.

But the direction is right.

It's just a little bit of hardship now.

If the seedlings can't be sold, we have to grow them ourselves. In addition to the 50 mu of greenhouses, the nursery also has 100 mu of open vegetable fields. Now the greenhouses are planted with all kinds of fruits and vegetables, and a lot of vegetables have also been planted in the open fields. We've used up all the seedlings we've grown this year.

If you want to set up a seedling nursery, you have to start by growing vegetables.

This brings us back to what farm manager Li Mingkun is good at: growing cucumbers and other melons. He's doing just fine here and is always smiling.

Xue Jun once suspected that this guy was deliberately not giving it away for free in the early stages, just so he could keep it for himself.

After saying goodbye to Ma Ming, Chen Jiazhi, led by Wang Yongxiang, went to a farmer's vegetable field where he had planted his own seedlings.

This is a vegetable field where cucumbers are grown.

While other people's cucumbers have already been harvested, the seedlings in front of me are still only about 30cm tall, just beginning to climb, with some already showing flower buds.

Wang Yongxiang squatted down to examine the robust cucumber plants and explained, "Uncle Gui's family originally had cucumber seedlings, but many of them died from disease. The remaining seedlings didn't perform well after being planted. Finally, on my suggestion, they pulled up the seedlings and replanted grafted cucumber seedlings from the nursery."

Chen Jiazhi also squatted down, "It seems that things are not bad now."

Wang Yongxiang smiled. This was his first time working with grafted cucumber seedlings, and judging from the current situation, grafted seedlings do indeed have an advantage in disease resistance.

These seedlings have not been diseased since they were transplanted.

A moment later, an old farmer with bronze skin walked over. "Yongxiang's here?"

“Uncle Gui,” Wang Yongxiang stood up and said, “This is my boss, Mr. Chen, who came specifically to check on the growth of your cucumbers.”

Uncle Gui forced a smile despite his worried expression, but seemed unsure how to begin, appearing somewhat reserved.

However, Chen Jiazhi has experience dealing with old farmers!

Without saying anything, I lit a cigarette.

Yunnan is known as the tobacco kingdom, and in many areas, farmers don't need anyone to teach them to smoke; they naturally learn by their teens.

"This cigarette isn't strong enough." Uncle Gui still smiled as he took the cigarette and squatted down to examine the budding cucumbers.

"I dare not hope for anything else now, I just hope to recoup the cost of the fertilizers and pesticides I have invested."

Under open-air conditions, winter cucumbers in Yuanmou can be harvested until the end of December, which is two months away.

The cucumbers under our feet are only just beginning to flower and bud, and there may only be a month left for harvesting.

Fortunately, all 4000 seedlings per mu were provided free of charge by the nursery. Based on the nursery's selling price in Yuanmou, the cost of the seedlings was 600 yuan.

Because he saved on seedling costs, Uncle Gui dared to transplant cucumbers in October.

Wang Yongxiang asked, "Uncle Gui, did you use pesticides?"

"No, I haven't sprayed it even once," Wang Yongxiang said. "The plant is very healthy, so I haven't sprayed it."

Transplanting in October perfectly avoided the rainy season, naturally resulting in fewer diseases.

Chen Jiazhi cautioned, "Grafted seedlings have resistance advantages, so less pesticide can be used, saving costs, but they cannot be completely free of pesticides."

Uncle Gui nodded and said, "I know that. I stay in the fields every day, and I will take action as soon as I find anything."

Wang Yongxiang also said, "Uncle Gui, if there's anything you don't understand, remember to come to the nursery to find me. You're the face of our nursery, so you have to show those who look down on us a thing or two!"

"Fine!" Uncle Gui scolded, "Some people say there's something wrong with your seedlings, that they won't bear fruit and the yield will be low. I just don't believe it. How can such good seedlings not produce melons?" Wang Yongxiang said, "Facts will prove them wrong, Uncle Gui. If this year's results are good, you'll have to support the seedling farm next year."

Uncle Gui fell silent.

With seedlings costing 600 yuan per mu (unit of land area), not many people would dare to buy them!
Wang Yongxiang was also left speechless with embarrassment.

Chen Jiazhi also felt that the price was too high. Well, it wasn't his price that was set; if he had set the price, he would have made it free.

"Uncle Gui, you just mentioned that someone said there was something wrong with Miao. Where did that rumor come from?"

Uncle Gui shook his head, "I don't know where he heard it from, but a lot of people are talking about it."

"A lot of people?"

Chen Jiazhi looked at Wang Yongxiang, whose gaze also froze, realizing that there might be something fishy going on behind the scenes.

After leaving Uncle Gui's vegetable field, Chen Jiazhi and Wang Yongxiang went to the vegetable fields of another village.

This time, we planted tomatoes, covering nearly two acres. They were also grafted seedlings, with the scions being an early-maturing tomato variety. There were 5000 seedlings per acre, and their growth was equally impressive.

However, there are also rumors that slander the seedling farm.

Rumors such as "What good things can you get for free?", "It won't bear fruit", and "The yield is low" circulated.

This is probably why even though the seedlings are free, not many people dare to use them.

Thinking about his arduous journey of promoting the seedlings, Wang Yongxiang's temper flared up. He returned to the seedling farm cursing and told Gao Wei, Li Mingkun, and others about the rumors.

"Damn it, who's plotting against us from behind?!"

"No wonder it's so hard to get something for free!"

Chen Jiazhi wasn't sure how much of his anger was acting; perhaps Wang Yongxiang and Gao Wei had also had doubts about the grafted seedlings before, but had recently changed their minds.

But to achieve a complete change, we have to wait for production to materialize. And once the production is good enough, the rumors behind it will fall apart on their own.

However, Chen Jiazhi was still curious about who was behind this.

After several days of investigation, several clues pointed to the seed business department of Yuanmou Vegetable Company.

This is a state-owned enterprise.

Chen Jiazhi wanted to find Ma Ming, but he didn't have direct evidence. Even if he did have evidence, he probably couldn't do anything to him.

While Chen Jiazhi was busy working on this issue, Li Mingkun, the head of Yunling Farm, acted as if nothing had happened, continuing to work in the vegetable fields every day as usual.

Especially after Chen Jiazhi told him that artificial pollination is best used in greenhouse cultivation, he has been going into the greenhouse early every morning for several days in a row.

The originally planned 50-mu greenhouse seedling nursery has become a sea of ​​melons and fruits.

It's important to know that growing vegetables in greenhouses is quite labor-intensive. In addition, the local workers had no experience in greenhouse farming, and Li Mingkun himself didn't have much experience either. Most of the time, Li Mingkun had to figure things out on his own.

Meanwhile, due to the heat preservation effect of the greenhouse, the melons and vegetables inside grow significantly faster.

Although this deviated from the expected seedling site, Li Mingkun's skills were not bad, and he had his own ideas about vegetable planting and management.

That morning, Chen Jiazhi found Li Mingkun in the chili pepper shed.

The chili pepper variety is Zhongjiao No. 5 sweet pepper, and Li Mingkun is instructing workers to gently shake the plant to assist in pollination.

Chen Jiazhi also mentioned the rumors.

"Actually, I knew about the rumors a long time ago, but there was nothing I could do about it," Li Mingkun said frankly. "But if you want to sell seedlings, ultimately it depends on the results of growing them."

"So I changed direction. If I couldn't sell the seedlings, I'd grow them all myself. I'm not good at selling seedlings, but surely I can grow vegetables?"

"..."

Chen Jiazhi had mentioned growing his own crops before, but Li Mingkun never expected to carry it out so thoroughly.

But considering this situation, even if he were in that position, he would probably take the same path.

After all, they are all vegetable farmers.

What they excel at most is growing vegetables. Once they're back on their own track, they won't be afraid of those little tricks anymore.

After thinking it over, Chen Jiazhi pondered and said, "The direction is right. I didn't expect you to see things so clearly."

Li Mingkun smiled and said, "Just do what you're good at. When it comes to seedling grafting, we have to rely on Ji Song and Old Peng. Last month, the grafting process really wore him out."

The grafting survival rate at Yunling Farm is not high, only about 60%, and the process is slow.

But grafting workers are all trained by feeding seedlings; without a lot of practice, how can they become skilled?

Chen Jiazhi nodded, "We've all put in a lot of effort, now we're just waiting to reap the rewards."

Li Mingkun asked, "The earliest of these vegetables will be ready to be harvested in another week or two. Will they also be sold to Guangzhou?"

"Forget about Guangzhou, the competition is fierce now and vegetable prices are low."

Western Guangdong is one of the largest bases for transporting southern vegetables to the north. It is also close to the Pearl River Delta and faces competition from winter vegetable production areas in Hainan. Therefore, Yunnan vegetables cannot yet dominate the market in winter.

The only option is to head north.

Chen Jiazhi thought for a moment and said, "We can sell to cities like Chengdu. We have greenhouses, so the harvest season can be kept long. After December, we can avoid the peak harvest season in the local area, so we shouldn't have to worry about sales channels and transportation."

(End of this chapter)