Chen Suhou: From vice governor to farmer
By Jessie Tao (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2005-12-29 14:58

Chen's experience in presiding over the provincial irrigation work as deputy governor told him agriculture is impossible without irrigation. This partly explains why Nanbao Town now boasts the best irrigation network in all of Lingao County. Furthermore, to meet the farmers' demands for agriculture technologies, Chen actively contacted relevant agricultural technological sectors, urging them to organize training sessions in the countryside and solve the problems emerging in agricultural production.

Chen had only a seven-year education before he first went to work, so he fully understands the pain of illiteracy. In order to prevent the local kids from falling their urban peers at the starting line of education, he decided to open a kindergarten. In 2003, with the help of Chen, a local teacher received a loan of

Local farmers are doing exercises in the village park. [Xinhua]

10,000 yuan (US$1209.9) from the Rural Credit Cooperation to build the first kindergarten, which currently holds 56 kids in two classes.

Meanwhile, to provide the farmers a place for relaxation during their slack farming season, Chen reached for a poverty-free program launched by the Longhua District of Haikou, capital city of Hainan Province. With the money and building materials provided by the program, a cultural center and a village park were soon installed, where the farmers can have a cup of tea, sing, read, learn computer skills, and do exercises, enjoying life just like the urban people.

Established as a civilized ecological village, Songhai Village soon got rid of its identity of "bachelors' village." As Chen said, "Instead of worrying about their other half, the lads here are now busy considering which woman to marry."

With the ideology changed and environment beautified, to rid the village of poverty became Chen's greatest wish. Considering the rich natural resources and via field investigation and prudent deliberation, Chen decided to incorporate the "Farmers' Banana Cooperation," under which every member household grew bananas as a means to get rich. However, due to the failure in banana plantation in 1996, few people were interested in the cooperation.

Chen Suhou is inquiring a local farmer about the banana production. [Xinhua]

At the very beginning, there were only 7 member households, growing a total of 54-acre bananas, with Chen as the consultant. Brokered by Chen, the seven households combined to get a loan of 62,000 yuan (US$7,501.6) from the local rural credit cooperation in 2003.

The plan paid off a year later, reaping a total income of 400,000 yuan (US$ 48397.44) and a record per capita annual income of 1,800 yuan (US$ 217.79) in Songhai Village.

In 2005, almost every household in Songhai Village grew bananas, with a total plantation area of 6,000 acres. As bananas sells very well, the farmers not only cleared their loans on time, but also increased the deposit amount, which is to the rural credit cooperation's benefits. Nowadays Songhai Village enjoys a sound reputation as a "banana and credit village."

"I'll never part with agriculture all my life!"

Chen once wrote in his book Farmers and I: "Only by placing farmers' interests on the top place can the problems in agriculture and rural areas be sorted out." It is right what he practiced in reality: never leaving agriculture and farmers for a day in the past dozens of years no matter what post he held.

As he told reporters, when he was deputy governor of Hainan Province, he went to the countryside every month, 90 days per year, leaving footprints in the province's 306 towns, 90 state-owned farms, and nearly all of its reservoirs and channels.

"All my life has ultimately fallen to one word -- agriculture. I will never part with it during my lifetime," added Chen.