"Are you still looking to digging out 'golden pieces' from the soil?" In 2012, when I graduated from South Petroleum University with a degree in Economics and Management, just as my hometown, Bishan District, Chongqing, was planning to build a 100,000-mu vegetable base, I decided to return home to do agriculture. However, my parents didn't seem happy.

I understand them: although they had farmed for the their entire life and struggled arduously every day, their lives had never been easy. Therefore, they believe that agriculture is not a good way out.

They don't understand, the agriculture I want to do is not the same as what they did. I have two dreams: to make agriculture profitable and to let people eat healthy food.

How to achieve the goals? I aim to do ecological agriculture.

The first step is always difficult. To do ecological agriculture, the use of pesticides and fertilizers have to be reduced. This way, the quality was guaranteed, but it resulted in disease, low yield, and small sizes of the vegetables and fruits. It is hard to sell if the products don't look good. I lost hundreds of thousands over the years.

I was not discouraged. To improve the soil and products quality, our vegetable base still insists on fallowing every year.

"They didn't kill the weeds, spray insecticide and fertilize, they just let the cropland sunbathe every day! Are they scammers?" some villagers conveyed their suspicion to the subdistrict office and requested the government to examine.

Thanks to the support of the government, our business has hardly been disrupted, we learned techniques from others, and gradually figured out some cultivating techniques such as returning weeds to the field.

The hard work finally has come to an end. The ecological agricultural products of the base have gradually become popular. In 2017, the base made a profit. Then, it got better and better every year, attracting 235 villagers in the surrounding area to engage in ecological agriculture. Last year, in addition to rent, we gave villagers who transferred their land an additional 202 yuan per mu.

Look! There are really "golden pieces" in the soil. Our farming techniques have also received 5 national patents.

My parents feel so happy when they found there are business opportunities in the soil and volunteered to come and help every day.

The original article is written by Zhang Guosheng, translated by Fei Jinglun.

Find the original piece at https://epaper.gmw.cn/gmrb/html/2021-07/11/nw.D110000gmrb_20210711_4-01.htm