Shanglin star anise-scented chicken is famous far and wide, driving farming households out of poverty and toward prosperity
Wen Shujuan, a young woman born in the 1980s from Shuitai Village, Jiulong Village, Mingliang Town, is a well-known chicken-raising expert in the village.
Recently, a reporter walked into Shuitai Village and arrived at the entrance of Ruitai Original Ecological Farm run by Wen Shujuan, and from afar could smell wave after wave of the fresh fragrance of star anise. Under the star anise forest, the reporter saw thousands of chickens with glossy feathers, some leisurely searching for insects in the forest, and some flying up into the star anise trees seven or eight meters high to forage...
Returning home to start a chicken farm to ease homesickness
"Eating 'feed chicken meat' in the big cafeterias of big factories in big cities, I suddenly missed the most natural and most delicious 'native chicken meat' raised free-range ecologically back home. In 2013, I gave up a high salary in a big city and returned home to start a chicken-raising business," Wen Shujuan told the reporter about her original intention for raising chickens.
After returning home, Wen Shujuan made use of the county's policies encouraging returning entrepreneurs to start businesses, and successively participated in the county's new-type professional farmer technical training, the "Guangdong and Guangxi" entrepreneurship and prosperity leader training, and so on, and also learned from other skilled crop and livestock growers inside and outside the county, continuously accumulating farming and breeding experience. After on-site investigation, Wen Shujuan found that the local star anise forest ecological environment was very good. So she decided to start a business and get rich by developing star anise-scented chicken farming.
"Star anise-scented chicken, as the name implies, is chicken raised free-range under the star anise forest. Star anise-scented chicken farming uses a no-fence, fully ecological free-range method, letting the chickens freely forage for star anise seeds and insects and wild grass that fall under the forest, while normally supplementing their feed with five grains and miscellaneous cereals. They can only be sold after being raised for more than 8 months," Wen Shujuan introduced.
Establishing a cooperative to help farmers escape poverty
Wen Shujuan used vegetables she grew herself, combined with some Chinese herbal medicines, to make chicken feed, feeding the chickens until half full. By feeding them until half full, she stimulates the star anise-scented chickens to forage freely under the forest, implementing fully ecological free-range raising. The chickens have a large range of activity, and every one grows with a well-proportioned body and a lively nature, almost like wild mountain chickens. At the same time, to adapt to the needs of modern marketing, she adopted multiple sales channels such as online sales and physical market sales, providing online and offline sales services for diners. Diners can order through the internet, WeChat, telephone, and other means, or can directly go to the farm to buy star anise-scented chickens. Wen Shujuan said that her chickens mainly serve mid-to-high-end consumers, at 25 yuan per jin, and in 2016 the overall market sales were good, with considerable returns.
After three years of exploration, star anise-scented chicken farming has gradually reached scale. In response to the call of the Party and the government for poverty alleviation and development work, in November 2016, under the guidance of the local government, Wen Shujuan established the Shanglin County Xulongquan Ecological Farming Professional Cooperative, and went door to door to the homes of poor households in the village, introducing the cooperative's operating model to them and absorbing poor people to join the cooperative through small poverty-alleviation loans, land, and other means, so as to escape poverty and become rich together. At present, the cooperative has absorbed 18 poor households, of which 17 poor households joined the cooperative with 50,000 yuan small poverty-alleviation loans as shares, providing financial guarantee for the cooperative to expand its scale.
In order to improve the cooperative's economic benefits, Wen Shujuan also expanded the cooperative's business scope, further developing native pigs, native chickens, fish, four-season fruit, and other crop and livestock varieties. At present, the cooperative has 30 sows on hand, about 200 commercial pigs, 5,000 free-range native chickens, a total of 30 mu of pond water surface, and about 30 mu of four-season fruit. The cooperative uses 1 regular employee, with a monthly wage of 2,100 yuan; and 10 odd-job workers, at 70 yuan per day.
"Wen Shujuan is our local chicken-raising expert. Whether a chicken is fat or thin, after her conditioning and care, it will surely become a well-proportioned star anise-scented chicken," said Lu Shiyan, who has long worked at the cooperative.
"Our cooperative is getting bigger and bigger. Now more and more people come to buy chickens, and there are more and more orders, and our confidence in escaping poverty is growing stronger and stronger," said Wu Xiuzhi, a poor household who joined the cooperative with a 50,000 yuan small poverty-alleviation loan as shares.
"I will continuously expand the scale of our cooperative, strive to drive 50 registered poor households to escape poverty and become rich together, and at the same time provide employment positions for more poor people, helping the county's targeted poverty alleviation work and making due contributions to society," Wen Shujuan said firmly.