Friends of farmers: Beautiful family sows the seeds of altruism
When he read about a poor rural student who couldn't even afford a school bag, He Wenguo related the story to his daughter.
"Come over here, my little girl, and read this newspaper," He said. "What do you feel about the student and his family?"
Though still a primary school pupil, the empathetic girl was quick to understand the poor student's situation. Her eyes welled up as she proposed to her father: "Dad, let's buy a school bag and some stationery sets for him."
Moved by his daughter's sympathetic words, He took her on a shopping journey. They bought a school bag, some ball pens and several packs of paper notebooks, and then visited the poor student. In addition to the stationery items, He also carried several bags of compound fertilizer as gifts to the poor rural family, encouraging them to try and come out of poverty through hard work.
All this happened way back in 2003.
"I was deliberately testing my daughter," He recalled in a media interview this May. "I was proud of her."
Deep in his heart, He, who turned 56 this year, puts the well-being of farmers above his own. For more than 20 years, the farmer-turned-entrepreneur has lived up to his ideals while imparting the spirit of altruism onto his daughter and even his wife.
He Wenguo poses with his wife (left) and daughter. The family of three has been elected as one of China's 10 most beautiful families for 2023.
In May, the family of three was elected as one of China's 10 most beautiful families of 2023 – an annual honor for families that demonstrate a spirit of love for others and a devotion to collective good, among other merits.
We can't cheat farmers
When He and his daughter bought stationery as gifts for the poor rural student in 2003, he was only in his third year of entrepreneurship. In 2000, he quit his job at the local department of agriculture in Nanzhang County, central China's Hubei Province. At that time, a government job was regarded by many as a source of secure, if not handsome, income.
Chen Shengfen, He's wife, had just been laid off from a factory and feared that his "untimely" resignation could lead to a loss of stable family income. But a determined He was upbeat about finding a foothold in the rice seeds market. So in 2000, He resigned from his government job and launched his own seeds business, buying and selling what he believed to be high-quality rice seeds.
Business was good, though not necessarily prosperous. When He nudged his daughter to help the poor in 2003, his family was not very rich yet.
"I never wore good clothes when I was young," He Jinxia, the daughter, recalled in a China Central Television interview in May.
The 2003 story was a small test of the family's readiness to help others in need. A bigger test came in 2008, when many farmers who had bought seeds from He reported severe losses of yields. It turned out that one of He's business partners had been cheated by a seeds supplier. Despairing and depressed, He immediately contacted the seeds supplier, only to find that he had absconded, nowhere to be found.
He and his wife estimated the farmers' total losses would amount to 150,000 yuan (US$20,548), but they had earned only 3,000 yuan from the deal. When He decided to compensate for the farmers' losses, his wife disagreed. After all, they didn't cheat the farmers intentionally; they themselves had been cheated, she reasoned.
It was a difficult decision to make, indeed. In 2008, 150,000 yuan could buy a 120-square-meter apartment in Nanzhang County. It was an "astronomical" figure for He, who did not have that much cash at hand. Worst yet, he was in debt to banks.
"I felt sorry for my wife and my daughter," He said. "But I decided to take responsibility for the farmers at any cost as soon as I realized that poor seeds had spoiled their rice harvest – their only hope for a year's living."
He told his wife: "We have been cheated, but we can't cheat the farmers."
He Wenguo and his wife examine the quality of rice in one of their experimental fields.
In the next five years, He and his wife borrowed money from friends and relatives and eventually compensated the farmers for their losses. Since then, He has created a lot of experimental fields, in which he tests every batch of rice seeds before selling them to local farmers. His efforts to ensure seed safety even won recognition from Yuan Longping (1930-2021), who was dubbed the "father of hybrid rice."
In their first meeting in Changsha City, Hunan Province, in 2009, Yuan told He: "Good job, young man! Let's do it together to ensure food safety. Seeds are chips for agriculture ... and are fundamental to the national economy and people's livelihood."
Photos showing He Wenguo's meetings with Yuan Longping (1930-2021), "father of hybrid rice."
Yuan Longping's special gifts for He Wenguo: bowls bearing Yuan's name
He's story shows that family support – his wife willing to weather difficult times with him and his daughter ready to help others as he hoped – is no small matter in the making of a man, a good Samaritan.
Over the past 23 years since He launched his seeds business, the family of three has, on average, helped all the farmers who bought seeds from them increase their annual income by more than 100 million yuan.
This would have been unimaginable if He, along with his family, had not won enduring trust of the farmers with his altruistic efforts or his scientific experiments to ensure every seed is safe.
