1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 432 The Young Man Eating Tangerines
Li Mingkun took a drag of his cigarette, feeling depressed.

He was initially excited about the boss's arrival, thinking it was finally Yuanmou's turn, but after coming to see him, he was about to leave.

Chen Jiazhi observed Li Mingkun's expression and said, "Yunling Agriculture is doing very well now."

Li Mingkun said, "People strive for higher positions, and I also want to do better and better."

Chen Jiazhi pointed to the 100 mu of greenhouses in front of him and said, "The profits from this batch of greenhouses should be good."

Li Mingkun said, "The vegetable market is hard to predict right now. Merchants from Northeast and North China didn't come to Yuanmou much last winter. I heard that greenhouse farming is developing very rapidly in the north."

“That’s good. Old Li has a good overall perspective now.” Chen Jiazhi pondered, “In the long run, fruits and vegetables that can be stored for a long time are declining in popularity, but Yuanmou still has an advantage over many other regions.”

After a pause, Chen Jiazhi added, "Moreover, my initial goal in building the Yuanmou base was to cultivate seedlings and seeds."

Old Li, you have a good overall perspective, but you also need to think further ahead. Once the seedling and seed business is established, it will be much more profitable than growing vegetables.

If it were someone else, they might be even less patient.

As Li Mingkun said, each base is now changing almost every year, taking one step at a time.

Only the Yuanmou base is developing slowly; it has been doing seedling business for two years, but the business volume has not yet exceeded one million.

The only way to make money is by growing vegetables, and compared to other bases that make millions in 3-4 months, it's really not impressive.

However, this is the nature of the seed industry; the return cycle is long.

Compared to seeds, the seedling business has achieved this result in just two years, which is already quite fast.

But we must persevere.

After having lunch with Wang Yongxiang, Qi Xinghuai, and other management personnel from the Huangguayuan Town base, Chen Jiazhi and Li Xiu boarded a train at Huangguayuan Station to fly back to Huacheng from Kunming.

Qi Xinghuai didn't have much contact with the boss, but he heard a lot about him, especially from Director Li and the people from Huacheng who spoke highly of him.

But this time, upon seeing it, he found it rather unremarkable.

“Director Li, our greenhouse vegetables are also quite good. These 100 mu of greenhouse vegetables could potentially sell for 200 million yuan, which is not bad.”

Li Mingkun shook his head. "It's still not quite there yet. The 200 mu of open-field broccoli at Fanrong Vegetable Market sold for more than 3 million yuan in just over three months."

Qi Xinghuai was immediately stunned.

He stayed at the base in Huangguayuan Town and rarely went to Yuanma Town, so he didn't know much about other vegetable markets.

At that moment, they instantly realized the gap. Greenhouse vegetables in Yuanmou can be harvested for more than 6 months. Including the seedling period, the cycle is more than 7 months. Even so, the output value is still lower than that of broccoli, which only takes more than 3 months.

Moreover, there's the cost difference between greenhouse and open-field cultivation, which is incomparable.

Qi Xinghuai caught up and asked, "What kind of vegetable is broccoli?"

Wang Yongxiang listened with curiosity. He had heard about broccoli many times, but had never been too embarrassed to ask.

Li Mingkun said, "It's cauliflower, but cauliflower is usually white while broccoli is green and has a higher nutritional value."

"Cauliflower?"

The two were somewhat surprised, but Qi Xinghuai's eyes lit up again, "Then Yuanmou can also grow cauliflower!"

Wang Yongxiang also realized what was going on and said, "That's right, there are also farmers in Yuanmou who grow cauliflower. Since the two vegetables are similar, if you can grow cauliflower, you can definitely grow broccoli too!"

"Don't think about anything else, it's most important to do the thing in front of you well first."

Li Mingkun thought to himself, "It's a good thing I'm here keeping an eye on things. If Qi Yongfeng had come instead, Jia Zhi's dream of growing seeds would probably have turned into that of a vegetable farmer again."

But fearing it might dampen Wang Yongxiang and Qi Xinghuai's enthusiasm, he added, "The company has plans for broccoli, and Mr. Peng has already led people to conduct research in this area. When the time is right, there will be an opportunity to grow broccoli."

"That's fine, that's fine."

The two were genuinely shocked by the income from the broccoli.

Li Mingkun sighed and drove away. This was just the beginning. Pengcun Base, Jiangxin Vegetable Market, and Zengcheng Heli Farm—each of them had achieved considerable success.

The van arrived at Nengyu Town at a speed of over 30 miles per hour when several farmers suddenly waved and stopped it.

Li Mingkun stopped his car when he saw Wang Daxin, a vegetable farmer who had bought seedlings from him.

"Old Wang, what's wrong? What's the matter?"

Wang Daxin pointed to the dark-faced man next to him, whose face was filled with anxiety, "Boss, my cucumbers are infected with disease, could you go and take a look for me?"

"You're sick? What kind of sickness?"

"Yellow spots appeared on the leaves. The pesticide didn't control them; in fact, the spots became more numerous and larger."

"That should be downy mildew."

Li Mingkun recalled that it had rained for several days and the temperature had been high a while ago, and he quickly made a rough judgment.

He used to grow cucumbers in Huacheng, and downy mildew is the most common disease of cucumbers in hot and humid weather, so he's an old acquaintance with it.

He then inquired about the farmers' use of pesticides, and finding nothing wrong, he went to observe the nearby vegetable fields.

The situation is indeed quite serious. Downy mildew has progressed to the middle and late stages, making it very difficult to treat. Even if the plant is saved, it will suffer severe damage.

"How did it get like this?"

"It shouldn't be!"

Li Mingkun then asked Wang Daxin, "Old Wang, you also grew cucumbers, right? Did you get downy mildew?"

Wang Daxin said, "Yes, but after removing the diseased leaves and spraying the pesticide again, it was quickly brought under control."

The dark-faced man said urgently, "Boss, please think of a way to help me. I'll buy your seedlings next year too."

Li Mingkun then realized why the dark-faced man looked unfamiliar; he wasn't one of his clients.

This explains why Wang Daxin's cucumbers didn't have any problems.

Grafted seedlings do have a significant advantage in disease resistance, especially since he also knew that the vegetable farmer hadn't even bought seeds and was using his own saved seeds.

However, Li Mingkun still tried his best to provide his solution, and it was good to attract one more customer using this method. He estimated that this was not an isolated case; compared to coastal areas, vegetable farmers in Yuanmou were still far behind in dealing with pests and diseases.

But for seedling farms, a crisis is an opportunity to prove themselves.

After returning to his office, Li Mingkun spoke with Ji Song and asked him to pay attention to the occurrence of various vegetable diseases this year.

...

Flower City.

Li Xiu straightened Chen Jiazhi's clothes, took two steps back, and nodded repeatedly, "Not bad, not bad."

Chen Jiazhi was manipulated by Li Xiu like a puppet on a string.

He's tried on several suits already, I don't know what's the point, he looks handsome in anything.

Even the sales clerk kept praising him, saying he looked like a celebrity in a suit.

After finally choosing his clothes, Li Xiucai went to pay the bill and turned around to see Chen Jiazhi squatting at the door, looking like a street urchin.

"Let's go, Jiazhi."

"Hmm~"

"When you go to see your superiors in the future, dress more formally. Don't look like a farmer."

"I was originally a vegetable farmer, this is called staying true to my original aspiration."

"Oh, I'm wrong for buying you clothes?"

"No, I'll wear it every day from now on."

"What's wrong, trying to pick up some young girls?"

Chen Jiazhi didn't want to go along with the woman's words, and chuckled, "Tsk, if I wanted to seduce someone, this face would be enough; I wouldn't need to wear a suit."

"Shameless." Li Xiu snorted and stopped talking about it. If Jia Zhi really tried to seduce her, he would definitely succeed.

Chen Jiazhi didn't want to buy clothes, as he thought Chen Guanye was quite easygoing, but Li Xiu insisted on getting him a few decent outfits again.

The next day, Chen Jiazhi, dressed in a suit and tie, walked into a mansion. Wearing the suit, he felt that even the guard dogs were staring at him intently.

Guided by the directions, Chen Jiazhi arrived outside the private room, where people were chatting and laughing.

As soon as Chen Jiazhi entered, Chen Guanye's secretary, Kang Ming, saw him and greeted him with a smile, "Young Master Chen is here, please have a seat."

"Mr. Chen, come and sit next to me."

"Young Master Chen, I've heard so much about you!"

The enthusiasm in the private room was even greater, but the name 'Little President Chen' really made him uncomfortable.

But first Chen Guanye took the lead in shouting this, and now Kang Ming is doing the same, leaving him with no way to stop it.

The private room had a large round table that could seat twenty or thirty people, but there were only five or six people in the room at the moment.

Looking around, Chen Jiazhi sat down next to Lao Jun, whom he had met twice before. In his memory, Lao Jun was a landscaping engineer.

This position was also quite far back, and Kang Ming only nodded slightly.

After taking his seat, Chen Jiazhi remained quiet, rarely speaking, like an unknown nobody.

He was not very familiar with this kind of occasion and found it difficult to be adept at social maneuvering.

But he also has a clear understanding of himself; he is able to sit here because he can do something of value.

There are bound to be people like this in any circle. As long as he continues to do this well, his position will be very secure.

The fruit plate on the table was turned to his side. Chen Jiazhi saw that there were tangerines in the fruit plate, so he took one and ate it. It was very sweet, but it had seeds.

As people arrived one after another, Chen Guanye and Peng Linji also arrived at the private room as if they had timed it perfectly.

Chen Guanye sat at the head of the table, surrounded by a multitude of stars, and announced in a loud voice: "The main reason I've invited everyone here today is to discuss our collaborative poverty alleviation efforts..."

Chen Jiazhi listened attentively in his seat, surrounded by about twenty or thirty other people like him.

These people all donated to the education poverty alleviation fund, with varying amounts.

Sitting at the back of the group, Chen Jiazhi felt like a nobody.

I haven't felt this way in a long time.

But strangely enough, he somewhat looked forward to the feeling of climbing up little by little, moving forward, just like growing vegetables, from a few acres to thousands of acres now, each climb brings him joy.

It's just the same old process with a different name now.

He was very patient and confident. Now that he had been reborn, he couldn't just focus on money.

On behalf of the children in the impoverished mountainous areas of Baise, Chen Guanye thanked everyone present, but he wanted more.

Donations are like water without a source or a tree without roots, and it takes at least a generation for educational support to be effective.

A better approach is to develop local industries.

So Chen Guanye invited everyone present to invest in Baise, but few responded and the crowd was not very enthusiastic.

Even when someone replies, it's only out of interest, indicating that more investigation is needed.

Baise is far away, and the areas that need poverty alleviation are definitely more remote mountainous areas, making it difficult for industries to enter.

Chen Guanye called out names several times in a row, and each time he received the answer, he felt even more disappointed.

He looked around and his gaze fell on the young man who was far away from him. The young man was Chen Jiazhi, who was leisurely eating a tangerine.

Although it has seeds, it doesn't affect the taste. In his memory, the sugar oranges from Guangxi were the most plentiful.

Every October in later years, people on short video platforms would urge the people of Guangxi to hurry up and harvest the sugar tangerines.

(End of this chapter)