Rice entrepreneur works for farmers' benefits
Guan Yanli is at work. [Photo/Xinhua] |
A grain trade firm was established in Tongxian, Jilin province, in 2003 and five years later, a grain logistic company was opened by the same lady who opened the grain company.
She is Guan Yanli, an ordinary woman in Jilin who established her own business and at the same time created opportunities for local farmers to improve their income by selling more grain to wider places in China.
Guan brought advanced scientific agricultural technologies to a grassroots level and helped realized a sustainable development of land resources.
In the past few years, she visited experts at the Beijing Senior Expert Technology Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and has reached an agreement with the institute on engaging experts to offer seeds and organic fertilizer to farmers in her hometown and to guide farmers to plant high-quality rice with selenium.
Guan knows well that her career relies much on farmers and she always tries her best to help them obtain more profits.
A sudden typhoon attacked the Tonghua area in 2012, which casued local farmers and Guan's company great losses. She heard that the insurance company could only give farmers very little compensation and decided to offer subsidies herself.
"I was born in a peasant family and I know the grain mean everything in a farmer's life," she said.
Later, Guan established a specialized cooperative in Jilin focusing on rice cultivation in 2013, which has received great support and has attracted many farmers to join in and learn more planting skills.
Experts were invited to teach farmers advanced skills and to recommend high-quality corn types, after which farmers could harvest 50 kilograms more for every 600 square meters.
As the development of online shopping and e-commerce, Guan opened her online shop in 2015 and is exploring a new "Internet plus" module to improve the traditional selling channel. To date, Guan's company has signed with more than 40 alliances and farmers' lives are also greatly improved.
"I live on this land and I always try to offer more support to farmers," Guan said.