Agriculture is the foundation of a nation, and a solid foundation ensures national stability. As a major agricultural country, China has long regarded issues related to agriculture, rural areas, and farmers ("Three Rural Issues") as key factors influencing the stability of economic and social development. "Persistently focusing on the ‘Three Rural Issues’ and steadily advancing the comprehensive revitalization of rural areas" is not only a goal of government work but also a requirement for taking concrete actions to advance progress.

Guided by policies and driven by a sense of responsibility, a group of talents who love rural culture, possess professional skills, understand technology, and are proficient in management have returned to the vast rural land. They have made their mark in rural revitalization and become "new farmers" leading rural development. Guan Haiying is one such entrepreneurial "new farmer". After obtaining her master’s degree from the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, she turned down high-paying jobs in big cities to switch to the planting industry. With passion, faith, and perseverance, she has rooted herself in agriculture and is writing a story of a new farmer’s dream of revitalizing agriculture.

Guan Haiying’s journey to becoming a "new farmer" began with a trip back to her hometown. Her hometown, Wugang—known as a "Forest City of Hunan Province"—has long lagged behind coastal areas in the marketization of its agricultural sector, especially the planting industry, due to a lack of advanced technology, facilities, and modern planting and management concepts. This realization during her visit home planted in her the idea of driving villagers to prosperity by developing characteristic planting industries.

"I first learned about Taiqiu sweet persimmons through a recommendation from my supervisor during an entrepreneurial exchange. I never expected to be amazed by its taste the first time I tried it—it has the crispness of an apple, the juiciness of a pear, and the sweetness of a cantaloupe... It’s hard to believe it’s a persimmon," Guan recalled. This experience made her acutely aware of the value of this persimmon variety, which has an attractive shape and a unique flavor. Further research revealed that Taiqiu sweet persimmon—hailed as the "Hermès of persimmons"—is a high-quality sweet persimmon variety introduced from Japan. Its tannin content is much lower than that of ordinary persimmons, and it boasts excellent comprehensive traits and stable yield. Suitable for cultivation south of the Yangtze River, it has great development potential and promotion value.

Subsequently, Guan spent her spare time researching relevant materials, learning professional knowledge, visiting planting bases to understand their production and operation models, and consulting leading domestic R&D bases for Taiqiu sweet persimmons to study cultivation techniques and tissue culture methods.

In 2018, Guan resigned from her job in Nanjing and, with the support of her family and mentors, devoted herself to the planting industry, focusing on researching the cultivation of Taiqiu sweet persimmons. "Only when I started my business in this field did I truly realize that the planting industry requires significant capital investment, has a long return cycle, and involves high risks and uncertainties. Being a ‘new farmer’ is much harder than I imagined," Guan said. The "difficulties" she mentioned emerged when planting the first batch of saplings at the base.

In 2018, Guan introduced new Taiqiu sweet persimmon saplings from a research institute and planted them in a 100-mu open-air base in Wugang. According to the plan, the trees should have borne fruit that year. However, despite having a solid theoretical foundation, she lacked practical planting experience. When planting the first batch of saplings, she had to hire local farmers for assistance. Unfortunately, due to the lack of scientific management and adherence to technical requirements during the planting process, the survival rate of the trees was only 65%.

To identify the causes and find solutions, Guan consulted experts in Taiqiu sweet persimmon cultivation. Embracing the philosophy that "knowledge from books is superficial; true understanding comes from practice," she rolled up her sleeves and got her hands dirty when planting the second batch. She led the farmers to strictly follow the methods instructed by the research institute and carefully supervised every step, from watering to fertilization. By combining theory with practice, she gradually developed a planting method suitable for her base. Over the next three years, Guan stayed rooted in the mountains, living and working at the base, and continued to invest. It was not until 2021 that the Taiqiu sweet persimmons finally bore fruit, and the survival rate of the saplings at the base rose to over 95%.

Equipped with mature planting methods and years of base experience, Guan decided to seize market opportunities, bring her products and expertise to new markets, and expand her business.

The new market Guan chose was Nanjing—her second hometown. Located south of the Yangtze River, Nanjing has a climate and soil conditions ideal for Taiqiu sweet persimmon cultivation. Additionally, her work experience in Nanjing after graduation gave her a deep emotional connection to this innovative and vibrant city. The favorable environment, support for entrepreneurial resources, and in particular, a series of measures implemented by the Nanjing municipal government to promote the integration of the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries, made her feel that this was a "fertile ground" for entrepreneurship.

In 2023, Guan founded Wuzhiyuan (Nanjing) Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Wuzhiyuan"). After five years of entrepreneurial experience in Hunan and armed with solid technology and expertise, this aspiring young woman once again pursued her dream of technology-driven agriculture and rooted herself in Nanjing.

"The planting industry is fraught with uncertainties and yields slow results in the early stages. Factors such as technology, climate, and sales can all impact outcomes. Especially in the early days of entrepreneurship, we needed financial and policy support for land leasing, seedling cultivation, and standardized planting. Moreover, we wanted to expand into a fully intelligent base in Nanjing, so funds quickly became tight," Guan explained. Through a friend’s introduction, she learned about the Zijin Mountain Talent "Ningju Plan" and related policies. In 2023, Guan led her team to participate in the 10th "Win in Nanjing" Youth College Student Entrepreneurship Competition, won the Excellence Award, and received a total of 100,000 yuan in investment subsidies from the Nanjing Municipal Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security and Nanjing Innovation Investment Group. This investment was like timely rain, helping Wuzhiyuan overcome the difficulties of its early stage and allowing Guan’s dream to finally take root.

Since its introduction to China, the industrialization of Taiqiu sweet persimmons has progressed slowly. On one hand, it has high requirements for planting conditions and grafting technology; on the other hand, there are relatively few domestic teams engaged in related R&D.

From the moment she decided to grow Taiqiu sweet persimmons, Guan has actively promoted exchanges and cooperation between her team and research institutes, as well as universities, focusing on the selection and breeding of rootstocks for Taiqiu sweet persimmons. Traditionally, Diospyros lotus has been the main rootstock used for grafting Taiqiu sweet persimmons, which often leads to graft incompatibility and a series of subsequent problems. Through collaboration with universities, the team identified rootstock varieties with strong compatibility and high yield potential. Feedback from different planting bases over the years has shown that the grafted Taiqiu sweet persimmon seedlings integrate well with these rootstocks, and more and more enterprises in the industry have recognized Wuzhiyuan’s Taiqiu seedlings. Gradually, Wuzhiyuan has established a relatively complete technical system for seedling cultivation and growth management, providing an innovative solution for the standardized growth of Taiqiu sweet persimmons.

Through a series of research and exploration, Guan and her team also realized that to achieve industrialization and large-scale cultivation of Taiqiu sweet persimmons, it is necessary to shift from experience-based management to a technology-backed digital management system that integrates the Internet of Things (IoT) and big data. They needed to establish a standardized growth model and develop Wuzhiyuan’s own "planting brain".

As a result, Wuzhiyuan strengthened its university-industry cooperation, integrating its previously unstructured planting experience with university resources to form a complete system covering planting and post-harvest processing. It is advancing the industrialization of Taiqiu sweet persimmons through steady, incremental progress.

"As a ‘new farmer’, one must not only get their hands dirty in the soil but also look up at the market," Guan emphasized. Despite the company’s rapid development, fierce market competition keeps her in a state of vigilance. She keeps her eyes on the long-term market and thinks deeply about the path to industrial development.

Lishui District is one of the first national agricultural high-tech zones in China and the only one in the Yangtze River Delta. It is also a key area for the development of green and smart agriculture. With the attention and support of the Lishui District government, Wuzhiyuan has received preferential policies such as tax reductions, favorable land leasing terms, and rent exemption for glass greenhouses in the early stage. Freed from worries, Guan and her entrepreneurial partners have devoted all their energy to researching and developing simplified and standardized cultivation models and techniques for Taiqiu sweet persimmons, promoting the marketization and industrialization of their products.

"Currently, we have launched the construction of the Lishui Taiqiu Sweet Persimmon R&D and Demonstration Base, which covers 20 mu of land for the R&D base and 40 mu for the planting base, with a total planned investment of 5 million yuan. We aim to build this into a base for integrating the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries, realizing an ‘integrated model’ that includes Taiqiu sweet persimmon seedling R&D, seedling sales, fruit wholesale and retail, innovative fruit processing, natural spice extraction and transformation, and tourist picking experiences. Only by increasing technological innovation and the transformation of research achievements in the Taiqiu sweet persimmon planting industry can we drive the development of the entire industrial chain and inject new vitality into rural revitalization," Guan said.

Every step of industrial innovation is challenging and requires solid, down-to-earth efforts. However, after the company got on track, Guan found that it was difficult to attract talents to the industry, and even harder to retain them.

How to attract talents to participate in rural revitalization and support industrial development is an issue of concern not only to Guan but also to local governments.

In 2023, with the attention and support of the Lishui District government, Wuzhiyuan joined the Lishui District College Student Agricultural Entrepreneurship Park. It provides technical guidance on Taiqiu sweet persimmon cultivation and market empowerment for college students engaging in "new farmer" entrepreneurship, helping this high-value-added agricultural variety take root in Lishui. This initiative also promotes the accelerated flow of factors such as industry, talent, and capital between urban and rural areas, advancing rural revitalization and high-quality development.

In addition, Wuzhiyuan actively promotes Taiqiu sweet persimmon technology to a large number of farmers and provides technologies and services—including glass greenhouse cultivation systems and standardized management technology systems—to agricultural enterprises, leisure experience farms, demonstration parks, and cooperative bases. "It is better to teach someone to fish than to give them fish," Guan said. She hopes to develop the industry through practical actions, attract talents with the industry, and retain them with meaningful careers, fulfilling the original aspiration and mission of a "new farmer".

The angel investment team of Nanjing Innovation Investment Group has continued to pay attention to Wuzhiyuan’s development and innovation after the investment. A relevant person in charge said: "Rural revitalization requires activating the participation of talents. Young people like Guan Haiying, who have entrepreneurial dreams and devote themselves to the ‘Three Rural Issues’ industry, play a demonstration and leading role as ‘new farmers’. This will help drive the high-quality development of agriculture through technological innovation. Nanjing Innovation Investment Group will continue to focus on college student agricultural entrepreneurship projects, strive to build an exchange and cooperation platform for information and resource sharing, inject financial ‘living water’ into the green industry, and help college students realize their dream of ‘revitalizing agriculture through technology’."