On the field, three young people cried with their heads. In the field of the test, which was before the previous night, a beautiful pumpkin seedling was devoured overnight by white powder, the cucumbers turned into cucumbers, and the green leaves of the series turned yellow... In the autumn of 2023, zhang zouyu's first pumpkin business ended with the “total military collapse”. Who would have thought that today the guangxi girl, with her team, would break into a thousand acres of pumpkin industry, sell products that cover guangxi, the irradiated north-west, and go to the public view stage twice. This year, her and the team's project was also supported with up to $150,000 in start-up funding for top senior graduates of nanning in 2025。
Zhang zou yu (right three) brings products to the 2025 golden hills pumpkin cultural event. (pages for interviewees)
Pumpkin stories grow dreams
Youth-to-farm start-up
A few days ago, when journalists met zhang zhu yu at the golden hills farm in the western township, she was crouching with her little partner in the soil to see how the crops were growing. “with 150,000 yuan in start-up capital, we plan to build an integrated and intelligent agricultural shed, introduce modern agricultural technologies, develop a spasm and make agriculture more technological.”
Zhang zouyu's relationship with pumpkins stems from the story of the resistance told by his childhood grandfather. As a grandfather of the old red army, she was often told that the revolutionary warriors were hungry with pumpkin soup and were fighting for victory. These stories planted seeds in her heart and made her feel special about agriculture and pumpkins as a child。
After the examination, zhang zou yu chose the artificial intelligence profession of the guangxi university of agricultural technology, which was the only undergraduate university in the country at the time. In the second year, an entrepreneurial competition involving alumni's businesses became a turning point for her life. In her research into the field, she found two major pains in the cultivation of pumpkins by farmers: scattered patterns and poor marketing of good-quality pumpkins; and monocultures, mostly of membrane pumpkins common in the market for vegetables。
Aimed at these two problems, zhang zouyu started his first business with two classmates. The school provided them with a pilot plot of land, and the three men confidently introduced several pumpkin varieties to start planting. In the autumn, the pumpkins grew and bloomed, and the results went well, but the platinum plagued the whole melon field overnight, with cucumbering before it matured, and the newly grown seedlings dying. This failure struck the three people, who “wept their heads in the field and were once in a state of anxiety and confusion”。
Soon, they'll cheer up again. Aware of the problems at the technical level, they have actively approached alumni enterprises and, with the support of their investment and technical guidance, have actively studied various farming techniques。
Zhang zouyu showed a new type of pumpkin “sapkin”. Reporter peng jin
Field science for farmers
Quality enhancement industries
With technology in place, the team began to devise a way to make traditional agriculture a better “stick” to intelligent agriculture. Zhang zouyu has developed “pumpkin's yoo” id on several platforms, and received more than 800,000 views on the night of the first video release。
And when they think they're going to be the big net red, the question comes, "do you know how to grow after 00?" in the face of the various voices, they have both been sad and sad: the team has redirected its content to focus on sharing the day-to-day business, while adding the technical generic content of pumpkin growing, including practical knowledge of selection techniques, planting methods, etc. As a result of the change in content, there has been more support and encouragement for the comment area and more social attention for the team. Not only did it attract the attention of a large number of media outlets, both within and outside the region, but it also took the stage twice this year。
On-line operation of wind and water, and under-line deep cultivation techniques. The “yo yu xinqing farm” comprises approximately 35 acres of land, with clear and focused zoning: roadside plots are mainly a mega-pumpkin marriage experiment, exploring new routes for increasing the production of extracts, with nearly 100 pounds of pumpkin being cultivated in the first half of the year; the soil health management pilot field is dedicated to the problems of growing many wasteland areas in guangxi and dry-water-reforming plots, and to the testing of soil improvement products; 220 varieties have been tested in the resource-testing area of the pumpkin species in the first half of the year, with high-quality varieties screened out, new “small evacuation” and cream pumpkin products in the second half of the year, and potential for further testing of volume production。
From less than an acre of experimental fields in the initial school to the establishment of more than 30 acres of independent planting grounds by 2024, to the extent that today cooperation bases in guangxi exceed 2,000 acres, the industry map of the zhang zouyu team is expanding and the sale of products from guangxi mainland to thousands of acres of cooperative bases in the greater north-west regions of gansu and ningxia。
While the industry is developing steadily, zhang zouyu has not lost sight of his professional advantage in thinking about new ways of integrating artificial intelligence with traditional agriculture. She led a new entrepreneurship team of school students to focus on the digital agricultural sector and explore innovation, and has now hatched 16 university-based entrepreneurship teams from different higher education institutions, aiming to break out of agricultural development for new farmers。
Helping the farmers to recover
Technology for the development and upgrading of varieties
The development of zhang zou yoo's team requires policy support and support. In december 2023, shortly after the formation of the team, the team took part in the first entrepreneurship competition in the western township, where it received attention and follow-up services from the nanning community department, and was subsequently successful in incubation sites, creating a demonstration base for pumpkin farming resources, a special feature of the yoko sucheng farm。
This year, the zhang zou yoga team project was greatly encouraged by the 150,000 yuan start-up funding provided by the nanning community department for the graduates of the institute. Zhang zouyu stated that, in the past, the farm had been restricted in terms of funds, and only some simple mobile facilities of a non-destructive nature had been built. Today, with the support of funds, the team plans to move the farm from a simple field to a feature display base where the greenhouses, smart farming systems, chickens and reptiles are combined。
“the entrepreneurship start-up finance support policy was introduced to encourage tertiary graduates to start up their businesses and to tap into high-quality projects and talent.” the deputy chief of the rural section of the labour employment service management centre of nanning city introduced the policy, which has been in force since 2022, with at least one annual evaluation. As long as there is a willingness to start a business in nanning, graduates of the corresponding higher education institutions in the current year can take part in the evaluation of an excellent business start-up project, which will provide between $10,000 and $200,000 in start-up funding to address the initial funding shortfall. Over the past four years, 64 business start-up projects have been supported and 2. 94 million yuan have been disbursed. Of these, 2025 supported 14 projects and disbursed $670,000. Following the release of funds, the social welfare sector will also provide a full range of follow-up services, such as financing interfaces, site support and resource links, as well as long-term monitoring mechanisms, which will be followed up on a regular basis within one year. Entrepreneurs are required to submit a statement of the use of the funds to ensure that they are used in key areas of entrepreneurship development。
Turning to the future, zhang zou yu's plan is clear: “no blind expansion of the base, no development of deep tillage. In conjunction with the problem of land erosion in guangxi, the landscape and part of the arable land of the eight mountains is being abandoned. Through the upgrading of varieties and the technical adaptation of the plant, the value of idle land has been raised and more quality pumpkin varieties suitable for local cultivation in guangxi have been explored. It is hoped that, along with more new farmers, the path of entrepreneurship will be made wider and wider in the land of quail.”
