Shepherd Tian Guanghu's Experience of Getting Rich by Raising Sheep
On February 27, the bright sunshine filled the land with the breath of spring. In the sheep pen of Tian Guanghu, a large-scale breeding household in Tuanjie Village, Xingren Town, Shapotou District, more than 200 fattening sheep that had been brought in before the Spring Festival were eating forage, all plump and sturdy.
"The average price of these sheep when they were brought in was 400 yuan each, and now they can sell for about 500 yuan. After feeding them for a month, each sheep can bring a net profit of about 50 yuan," Tian Guanghu said rather proudly.
Tian Guanghu's family earned more than 400,000 yuan in gross income from raising sheep last year. Driven by him, many villagers in the same village followed Old Tian's approach and also started breeding with the help of poverty alleviation loans. The "breeding demonstration farm" of more than 20,000 sq m at the entrance of the village is the best example of farmers in this resettlement village making their fortunes.
The seemingly simple "one in, one out" still requires working capital as a guarantee. In 2016, Shapotou District issued a total of 1,904 various industrial poverty alleviation loans worth 81.73 million yuan. Tian Guanghu's family seized this good opportunity. Through the village mutual aid fund and the implementation of the resettlement industrial poverty alleviation fund project, together with the breeding technical guidance provided by the government, the number of sheep in his family's pen grew larger and larger. Over a year, more than 10,000 fattening sheep were sent to market, and at the peak, more than 800 sheep were sent to market in a single day.
Li Zhihai, director of the Tuanjie Village Committee, said: "Tian Guanghu alone engaged in breeding and drove more than 20 households along with him. These people are all living prosperously now."
"Such development has been possible because of effective policies, and also because of the support of leaders and wealth-leading individuals. If the government can provide some good preferential policies again this year, our village plans to raise about 4,000 sheep, preferably reaching 4,000 in a month, and send 40,000 to market in a year. This is our ideal goal," Tian Guanghu said.
Tuanjie Village in Xingren Town is a purely resettlement village, relocated as a whole from Haochuan Township, Haiyuan County in 2011. At first, the villagers relied on going out to work, with a per capita annual income of just over 1,000 yuan. Now, with the help of targeted poverty alleviation policies, capable people like Tian Guanghu have become wealthy by relying on targeted poverty alleviation policies and various forms of funding support. Breeding demonstrations, labor export and freight transport have become the leading industries for the whole village to escape poverty and become prosperous. In 2016, the per capita income of farmers in Tuanjie Village reached 4,955 yuan, successfully achieving poverty alleviation and being removed from the poverty list.