Rural Entrepreneuses Make Good

Enriched Cultural and Social Life

The trio also organizes various social and cultural activities to balance their staff’s labors. On National Day morning, cooperative workers hold a flag-raising ceremony and sing the national anthem. On March 8, International Women’s Day, experts are invited along to give lectures on plantation, women’s health care and protection of women’s rights. Last Double Sixth Festival (on the sixth day of the sixth month of the lunar calendar) the cooperative held a song writing and singing competition in which lyrics are set to popular folk melodies. The three women sponsored the traditional Laba Festival last January, an occasion when local residents gather to invoke the blessings of ancestors and mountain gods for a good harvest.

The cooperative sponsored a song writing and singing competition for the Double Sixth Festival last year. Yang Xingfa

Bright Prospects

The women’s roxburgh rose cultivation cooperative has put in place a complete modern management system that covers daily operation, finance, employment, and training. No matter how busy the cooperative might be, it always allows workers the time they need to take part in training schemes organized by the local authorities. It also invites experts to show workers planting techniques and give advice on starting small and micro businesses.

The cooperative’s 500 or more mu of roxburgh rose and the 8,000 chickens raised in mobile coops beneath the fruit trees constitute a three-dimensional ecological and agricultural mode: chicken manure nourishes the fruit trees while the chickens feed on grass and worms in the orchard. This has earned Zhao Qiju, Shi Mingying and Shi Linfen several national and local honors and titles.

The cooperative has plans to promote agritourism. With roxburgh rose cultivation as the core, it also envisages growing vegetables, medicinal herbs and other fruits. The aim is to build a comprehensive program that includes a 1,000-mu orchard, a 100-mu ecological tea garden, a 1,000-sq-m fishing pond, an under-tree poultry raising scheme for 5,000 chickens, and a homestay business.

Gaozhai Village’s trio of entrepreneuses has formulated an events calendar for their cooperative: In spring it will be the ideal weekend destination for city dwellers to pick tealeaves and enjoy the sight and scent of flowers; in summer visitors can fish under the cool shade of trees; autumn is the season for picking fruits, vegetables and chili; and in winter weekenders can feast on the fresh pork, chicken and duck raised at the cooperative. To make this dream reality, Zhao Qiju, Shi Mingying and Shi Linfen are encouraging local women interested in starting their own businesses to join in and contribute investment. They are meanwhile applying for governmental financial support. \

GU YU is a reporter with Anshun Daily; LIU MEI is director of the general office at the Anshun Women’s Federation of Guizhou Province.