A young woman, with sun-darkened skin and wearing a straw hat, bends over to check the carrots growing in a field in Chaihu, a town in Zhongxiang, a county-level city in central China's Hubei Province. Who is she? Tian Yu'ai, a postgraduate student who decided to return to her hometown after university. Tian, born in the 1990s, is chair of Zhongxiang Maotai Vegetable Planting Professional Cooperative. She has spent the past eight years writing a legendary carrot-cultivation entrepreneurial story in her hometown. Earlier this year, she was named a National March 8th Red-Banner Holder.
Rooted in Soil
Tian graduated from Cardiff University, in the United Kingdom, in 2017 with a master's degree in business. She majored in business strategy and entrepreneurship. She decided to return to her hometown to work as a farmer, and to promote modern agriculture. When asked to explain the reason behind her decision, Tian said it was her father's relentless dedication to the radish industry, for more than 20 years, that convinced her to continue her family's legacy. In 2017, her father's white-radish plantation, in Zhongxiang, struggled to survive as there were too many radish growers in her hometown. While conducting research, Tian noticed there was a gap in large-scale carrot cultivation in central China. She suggested her father begin planting and harvesting carrots.
Tian established Maotai Vegetable Planting Professional Cooperative in 2017. The cooperative began a carrot-planting trial the following year, but the trial failed, due to inadequate irrigation facilities. That failure resulted in huge financial losses. Despite her doubts, Tian pressed on. "Giving up when encountering difficulties is definitely not an option. I had to find a way," Tian recalls.
In 2019, the cooperative tested a new mode of planting; the farmers planted four rows of carrots in one furrow, but it proved unsuccessful. High temperatures and considerable humidity in spring caused many of the carrots to rot. Further, extremely cold temperatures during winter resulted in low yields. Yet, Tian persisted. In 2020, she tried the "two rows per furrow" planting mode, and, through research and consultations with experts, she solved many of the technical problems experienced by the farmers, such as high groundwater levels. The farmers finally achieved success.
Today, the cooperative's vegetable planting area exceeds 10,000 mu (666.7 hectares), and its annual output value exceeds 260 million yuan (US $36 million). The cooperative is now the biggest large-scale carrot-planting base in central China.
Common Prosperity
Chaihu is the largest centralized resettlement area for migrants in China. The town, with a lack of natural resources and a harsh ecological environment, was once a poverty-stricken region in Hubei.
Yuchi was once a severely impoverished village in Chaihu. In 2019, Tian introduced the "four-priorities mechanism" for promoting poverty alleviation in the village. She prioritized land transfers for impoverished households, she hired poverty-stricken laborers, she provided technical training to workers, and she helped spur industrial development. Such efforts helped the villagers increase their annual incomes by 20,000 yuan (US $2,817), on average.
Tian has since replicated the Yuchi model in eight neighboring villages. She has helped transfer more than 8,000 mu (533 hectares) of land, and those land transfers have benefited more than 100 households; for example, by increasing their incomes by a combined two million yuan (US $281,690). Tian has helped people in her hometown escape poverty and she has become the backbone of rural revitalization in her hometown.
Helping Women Pursue Dreams
Tian is devoted to promoting women's development. She has taken the lead in boosting employment and promoting breast- and cervical-cancer screening and treatments for women, and in protecting women's rights and interests.
Tian offers jobs to 200-plus women each year. She believes "a job not only helps a woman earn a better income, but also build her confidence." Tian also asks agricultural experts and technicians to provide free vegetable-planting training, to ensure women learn important skills so they can increase their incomes. "These 200-plus positions are not cold numbers, but they carry the hope of more than 200 families," Tian says. She believes when more women put their skills to good use in the fields and workplaces, they will burst, not only with vigor and strength, but with a vivid interpretation of "women can hold up half the sky."
Tian has received numerous accolades in recent years, including being named a National Rural Revitalization Youth Pioneer and one of the Top 10 Farmers of Hubei Province. Earlier this year, she was named a National March 8th Red-Banner Holder. "This honor does not belong to me alone. It is a source of encouragement for all women working in the agriculture sector," she says.
Tian is full of confidence as she talks about the future. "Rural revitalization is an opportunity, and a responsibility. I will continue to root myself in agriculture, develop the cooperative, introduce new technologies and equipment, and improve agricultural-product quality and yields. Meanwhile, I want to help more women start businesses, by organizing regular training, sharing experiences, and providing technical and financial support. I am ready to contribute to the high-quality development of agriculture in Hubei!" says Tian.
Photos from Interviewee
(Women of China English Monthly November 2025)
Editor: Wang Shasha
