Returning home to start a business raising bamboo rats, college graduate leads villagers out of poverty toward prosperity

Xu Xiongneng, a villager from Qunli Village, Pingshan Township, Long'an County, is a locally renowned farming king. Starting in 2014, he returned home to start a business, took root deep in the mountains, and carved out a new world for himself through specialty farming. Today, Xu Xiongneng's bamboo rat farming base has gotten on track, its scale has expanded, annual income is also increasing, and he has led surrounding villagers out of poverty toward prosperity. Recently, we went to Pingshan Township, Long'an County, to visit Xu Xiongneng's path to prosperity through farming.

At the bamboo rat farm of the Yipincheng Breeding Cooperative in Pingshan Township, Long'an County, we met Xu Xiongneng, the person in charge of the cooperative. He is young, but when he talks about farming he speaks with great expertise. Inside the bamboo rat farm, from the rearing pools built with ceramic tiles came the sounds of bamboo rats gnawing and chewing. Following the sounds, the reporter saw a group of bamboo rats scrambling for food. Xu Xiongneng explained that bamboo rats are not picky eaters; besides the bamboo they love, they can also eat corn, sugarcane, corn stalks, and more. To prevent the bamboo rats from climbing and burrowing, the bamboo rat rearing boxes all use ceramic tiles as fencing and cement boards as bases. "This also makes it convenient for us to clean the rat houses every day," Xu Xiongneng said. Bamboo rat farming has begun to take shape, products are in short supply, and it has become a highlight of the Yipincheng Cooperative's specialty farming industry.

In 2009, after Xu Xiongneng graduated from Guangxi Normal University for Nationalities, he worked in Hunan and Guangdong. During his time in Guangdong, Xu Xiongneng learned that bamboo rat meat is tender and delicious, is a low-fat, low-cholesterol meat, and currently has a large consumer market in large and medium-sized cities in southern and western China, with demand growing very quickly.

"Raising bamboo rats has low costs, low technical difficulty, and money comes quickly, and no one in our area was farming them yet." Xu Xiongneng smelled a business opportunity. In 2012, Xu Xiongneng brought home a batch of bamboo rats purchased in Guangdong for the New Year and had his parents raise them first. After a period of farming, Xu Xiongneng found that bamboo rat farming had good economic returns.

In August 2014, Xu Xiongneng and his wife returned home to start a business. In the same year, Xu Xiongneng, together with six other returning-home entrepreneurial young people including Qin Jinming of Qunli Village and Huang Zhangfeng of Tuanjie Village, jointly registered and established the Yipincheng Breeding Cooperative of Pingshan Township, Long'an County, to carry out specialty farming including bamboo rats.

After Xu Xiongneng's bamboo rat farming base was completed, he continuously encouraged villagers to participate in farming. Under his leadership, many farming households have developed bamboo rat farming. Xu Xiongneng often organizes bamboo rat farmers for technical and experience exchanges, and uniformly standardizes a series of links in bamboo rat farming production, supply, and sales. Under their guidance, farmers have found a new path to prosperity. Last year, the cooperative's annual bamboo rat output exceeded 1,600 jin, with an annual output value of about 68,800 yuan. The annual output of bamboo rat breeding stock was 500 pairs, at an average of 320 yuan per pair, with an annual output value of about 160,000 yuan.

As bamboo rat farming reached scale, Xu Xiongneng added a classical chicken project. At present, the cooperative mainly focuses on specialty farming of broiler chickens, meat pigs, bamboo rats, seven-colored pheasants, and more, among which farmers raising bamboo rats and classical chickens account for about 70%.

The Party committee and government of Pingshan Township attach great importance to the cooperative's development, acting as a bridge for the cooperative, securing project cooperation with the Guangxi Red Cross Society and the Qunli Village Committee, and striving to drive the development of the industry of the entire village and the entire township, covering more impoverished households.

Today, the Yipincheng Breeding Cooperative, represented by Xu Xiongneng, has grown from 6 members at the initial stage of its establishment to 82 members, among whom 76 impoverished households in Qunli Village voluntarily joined the cooperative; 56 impoverished households mainly raise broiler chickens and bamboo rats; the remaining impoverished households mainly join the cooperative with labor as their share, and receive wages of 600-800 yuan per month according to the labor they contribute.

"Our cooperative is just building a platform to develop the village's farming industry, form industrialized farming, and lead our fellow villagers to prosperity together." Xu Xiongneng is full of confidence in the future.