By Yuling Chen, EDITOR
Peng Yang often says she is a modern farmer—she grows fruits like common farmers but uses modern agricultural development ideas.
Peng Yang established “So Orange”. (Photo by Xu Zhenxue)
Peng established “So Orange” with the determination that she would bring Fengjie people back to their hometown. After two years, she almost realized her dream: 80% of these people returned to the county to work at the base of So Orange, with more than half of them were women.
Many people who love Fengjie navel oranges have known “Peng Yang”, even though never meet her in person. The woman, less than 30 years old, received a Ph.D. degree in the University of Cambridge, won awards like “China’s Outstanding Businesswomen” and “2016 Top 10 Smart Agricultural Entrepreneurs”.
Peng Yang and her team (Photo by Xu Zhenxue)
“I’m a modern farmer in Chongqing”
Peng Yang was born in Fengjie County and was “raised” by Fengjie navel oranges.
She then studied at the University of Cambridge and obtained her doctoral degree in land economics in 2016.
Peng’s dissertation focused on how to accelerate Chongqing’s economic development while narrowing the gap between the poor and the rich. She concluded that the key lied in the promotion of large-scale agriculture and deep processing of agricultural products, which could extend concerning industrial chain.
Over two years ago, Peng returned to Fengjie after graduation. She decided to use the knowledge she had learned to develop the industry of Fengjie navel oranges, improve the fruits’ added value and extend the industrial chain. With such efforts, she would build a standard, technology-oriented and branding modern agriculture and help her neighbors become well-off.
To start her business, she and her research team visited many countries such as the U.S., the UK, Brazil and New Zealand. Then, they conducted surveys in major orange production areas in China including Zhejiang, Hubei and Jiangxi. Based on this, they thoroughly analyzed the collected data to understand the direction, strengths and weaknesses, development strategies and market prospect of oranges produced in Fengjie. In 2016, she officially launched her project, Shancheng Shidai (So Orange).
Peng said: “The orange carries my mother’s love and memories about my hometown. I regard it as my companion. Therefore, I feel so happy to fight with it.”
With the brand promotion, So Orange has become increasingly popular in China and enjoyed over 300 sales channels online and offline.
She described herself, "I'm a modern farmer in Chongqing."
Attract More People to Return Home
Peng’s work has made her a female role model in rural vitalization in Chongqing. That, however, is not her ultimate goal. What she hopes is to further promote the development of the orange industry and attract more people back to Fengjie.
Orange trees
“The rural vitalization strategy proposed at the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China makes me feel hopeful and motivated. However, I don’t think this goal can be realized by several entrepreneurs,” said Peng. “We must rely on talented people and ensure the sustainable development of economy, society and environment,” Peng continued.
That is why she has made a great effort to attract talents and led women to protect and improve the growing environment of navel oranges. “We must protect the land and environment as mothers protect their kids so that we can grow high-quality navel oranges in the next 10 years, even 50 years.”
By 2020, Peng will establish an ecological agricultural system which will process over 100,000 tons of navel oranges, bring the production value up to 1.1 billion yuan and help another 500 people get employed.
Peng said: “We will build an orange-themed sightseeing park, integrating the planting industry with the tertiary industry.” By then, the brand will create more work opportunities for women who can also start their own businesses based on their work experience gaining from So Orange.
Source: CQCB