Sheep farming helps poverty alleviation with clever tricks, this shepherd is truly remarkable
The Dragon Boat Festival had just passed, and the rain was plentiful. Wei Changguang, head of the Guangchanglong sheep farming cooperative in Liyang Village, Lingnan Town, Heshan City, rode his motorcycle back and forth between the old and new sheep sheds, devoted to his sheep farming business.
Four rows of brand-new pens and single-story houses stood out prominently under the dense forest cover. A mixer was parked at the construction site, and cement, bricks, pipes and steel bars were piled up under the work shed. Workers wearing straw hats and long sleeves and trousers were concentrating on shoveling and transporting sand and gravel. This is a semi-cold mountainous area with relatively high altitude, a cool climate, lush vegetation on the mountains and winding quiet paths. The new base was built right here.
"Raising sheep has relatively high environmental requirements. This place is far from human habitation, isolated from pollution sources, and has good air, making it more suitable for raising sheep," Wei Changguang said.
This live-in son-in-law had quite a bit of business sense. Years earlier, he quit his high-paying job as a chef in Nanning and went to his wife's hometown to devote himself wholeheartedly to being a shepherd. In March 2012, Wei Changguang invested 90,000 yuan to establish a improved-breed goat pen-feeding demonstration base. "Live sheep are sold starting at 60 jin, the heaviest at 150 jin, averaging 18 yuan to 20 yuan per jin. Someone buys the sheep manure to raise earthworms." Wei Changguang's success stirred the villagers' desire for poverty alleviation. In August 2013, the Guangchanglong sheep farming cooperative was established, with 27 member households distributed across Xialei, Tangcun, Qinjian, Lichao and other villages and hamlets in Liyang Village, with more than two thousand goats on hand.
"I've raised sheep for 20 years, and life has changed a lot. The mud-brick house has been replaced by a two-story building, the roads are open, and I have a new means of transportation. Whatever the country advocates, I just follow by planting and raising the same things." Pan Zhengjie, a 74-year-old impoverished household, raises 80 sheep and earns 8,000 yuan to 10,000 yuan each year.
"The cooperative provides technical guidance, so there is not much to worry about. To vaccinate the goats, just go find Xiao Wei." This is the consensus among members. A while ago, Jiang Chengpei, who raises sheep in Lichao Hamlet, had goats that suddenly became thin, and he hurriedly called Wei Changguang for advice. Qin Guichao of Qinjian Hamlet could not sell his sheep, so he also went to Wei Changguang.
"In 2014, the Poverty Alleviation Office invested 150,000 yuan as share capital for impoverished sheep-raising households. The 50 impoverished households covered can receive a dividend of 280 yuan each year for two consecutive years, and after two years it is returned in the form of two lambs per household." In Wei Changguang's view, when farmers join the cooperative, on the one hand someone helps provide a safety net for technology and sales, so they no longer need to "rush around." When prices are high, they can sell on their own; when the market "cools," the cooperative handles sales, so there is no worry when problems arise. On the other hand, it can better integrate the resources of small scattered households, unite for mutual support and achieve win-win results. In addition, the government gives certain policy preferences and financial assistance to cooperatives that absorb impoverished households as members. At the same time, a new policy was introduced this year. Impoverished households can voluntarily apply for microcredit support to invest in the cooperative, which to a certain extent solves the problem of insufficient development funds for the cooperative, helps the cooperative become bigger and stronger, and better leads everyone to escape poverty and become prosperous.
As the breeding scale continued to grow, the goats increased from 60 at the start to 310 now. The original old double-story, eight-room shed with a total area of more than 600 sq m built in Tangcun had become unbearably crowded, and expansion was imminent. Wei Changguang set his sights for the new expansion site on the mountain in old Liyang Village. After the original residents were relocated as a whole, a piece of residential land was left behind. But this required a large sum of money, which made Wei Changguang extremely worried.
When there are difficulties, find the secretary. "Thanks to Xie Dong, the first secretary of our village, and the stationed officials, who bustled around and helped me secure funding from the non-grain feed utilization demonstration project. This 1.2 million yuan covered a large part of the expenses needed for infrastructure construction, breeding goat reproduction and adding feed processing equipment." In March this year, the new base covering 20 mu broke ground, and when completed at the end of the year it is expected to have 750 sq m of pens and 600 cubic meters of hay storage sheds.
"Logically speaking, the new base is about 2,000-plus m of rugged mountain road from the village committee. After old Liyang Village moved out, basically no one lives there, but the city still wants to build a cement road and run power lines. It shows that in order to develop sheep farming and other industries, the city has made a great determination and paid a great cost, and is sincerely helping us build a nest to attract phoenixes." Seeing the stationed village officials come term after term and poverty alleviation work carried out batch after batch, Wei Changguang's heart was full of gratitude. And the good development model and policies injected Wei Changguang with a boost of confidence. He was full of confidence as he planned for the future: "Next, I want to ride the wind and mobilize impoverished households to plant 50 mu of forage grass."