Li recalled that at the beginning neither she nor Wang knew the proper water
temperature for unhairing until they finally looked it up shortly before they
put their processed chicken on market.
To go back and forth between the farm and Lusaka on every weekday is never
something enjoyable.
On that 18-km lonely road, Li was robbed three times by armed bandits, she
said as if she was telling a story of others.
With its good reputation and considerable profit return, Johnken Farm was
awarded by the Zambian National Commercial Bank ( ZANACO) a loan of about 1
million US dollars.
With the loan, Johnken Farm began to expand its business by
planting wheat after it installed a computer-controlled center-pivot sprinkling
irrigation system, which is widely used in large-scale commercial farms but the first one
in a Chinese-owned farm in Zambia.
"You have to become big and strong with modern advanced technologies and have
a bearing on the market. Otherwise you will risk being edged out of the market,"
Li said.
With that in mind, she suggests that small-and medium-sized Chinese farms in
Zambia merge to challenge the competition from other large-scale farms.
Meanwhile, Li said the Chinese government should encourage state-owned
conglomerates to come to Zambia to turn the vast agricultural potential into
reality.
Her advice echoed with the Chinese policy of further deepening the
cooperation with African countries which began to establish diplomatic ties with
China 50 years ago.
China's investment in Africa has accumulated to more than 6 billion dollars
with about 800 enterprises scattered in areas of agriculture, mining,
construction, telecommunication, etc.
The success of Johnken Farm was nevertheless shadowed by Li's personal loss.
In early 2005, her husband died in a car accident en route to Lusaka and was
buried in the farm that he loved so much.
The burden of heading the 200-worker state-owned farm fell all of a sudden on
the shoulders of Li.
She said she would not give up as this is the life she chose as it was 12
years ago when she chose to come to Africa. Perhaps there is too much here in
Zambia that she can hardly leave behind.
Outside the window of Li's house in the farm is Wang's tomb that is embraced
by some tender cypress trees planted by his friends to carry their mourning. A
bundle of chrysanthemum is on top of the tomb, yellow and fresh.
Li said her husband used to enjoy watching cows return
home from pasture at dusk, standing just on the highland where the tomb is
now.
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