What does the land grow on? In addition to good breeds and fields, there is an excellent optimization of the production chain baht. Zhang shik, a new farmer who has returned to his home country to start his own business, has “micro-innovation” through four ground-based gassing farms, resulting in at least 800 pounds of productivity gains from a single acre。
These four “micro-innovations” are not insinuations, but practical solutions to the pains of field management. First knife, swing to the weed puzzle. Zhang shik replaced the traditional black membrane with herbs. The calculation is clear: the black membrane costs $120 per acre, but without air or seed, additional inputs into herbicides and labour are required, and the hidden cost is $600 per acre; while the acreage is invested in $600, it is ventilated, recyclable, without weeding, and, more importantly, it produces 400 pounds of strawberries per acre. This is a trade-off between economic and ecological benefits。
Second move, break the conflict. In the case of strawberry seedlings, the demand for water and wind differs between the mother and the seedling and is easy to “fight”. Zhang shik has developed a dedicated starter to create a suitable environment for strawberries of different ages by mechanical design, and has applied for a patent for inventions。
Type three, introduction of berries. In order to address the problem of soil salinization and compaction caused by long-term strawberry cultivation, zhang shiko has developed a model of “may strawberry harvest followed by maize planting”. Deep roots of maize are effective in absorbing salinity, defusing soils, feeding the land and collecting more food for a season and combining land use with nutrients。
Act iv, establishing the standards of the process. How can quality be ensured in the face of 20 growers managing at least 30 acres per person? Zhang sko has refined strawberry cultivation into 16 processes, 32 standardized processes, from plant protection programmes to labour costs, all of which are contained in standards, “to turn the cropland into a stream of water” to ensure the stability of the strawberry head and quality of output。
Zhang shik, aged 42, graduated from the senior plant protection profession at jianning farm school and has provided technical guidance to a number of well-known enterprises, becoming lead runners of high-yield open strawberries in 2017. In 2020, he took a look at the water and soil conditions in the town of hua village in chua shui county and returned to start his own business and set up a new family farm. Today, farms have a standardized base of 1,600 acres, a hosting cooperative base of 500 acres, the main export of products abroad and a number of provincial and national honours. In 2024, the dr. D. D. Field strawberry cultivation station of the institute of leisure and agriculture of the agricultural college of shandong province was also listed。
Zhang shik's exploration has not stopped. At the beginning of 2026, three new strawberry varieties had been tested in his greenhouses. With its wisdom and sweat, the distinguished representative of this new agricultural business entity is continuing to transform the earth beneath his feet into a “gold earth” to boost the growth and revitalization of the countryside. (rural volkswagen correspondent, bau qingyi, pa yang, cai van wei)
