Deep in the mountains, good eggs are produced, helping farmers find a path to increased income and prosperity

Doupeng Mountain in Caozichong Group, Meichong Village, Houchang Township, Puding County is commonly known as the roof of Puding, which shows how high the mountain is and how remote the place is.

But since September 2014, driven by five returning entrepreneurs - Zhao Gaolun, Luo Fuqing, Luo Fuchun, Luo Fukun and Luo Changfa - Meichong Village has become fertile ground for laying hen farming. The Puding County Fengsheng Breeding and Planting Professional Cooperative founded by the five returning migrants covers 30 mu, currently houses 48,000 laying hens, produces 15 million eggs per year, and has an annual output value of more than 10 million yuan. In addition to supplying the local market, its products are also sold as far away as Guilin, Liuzhou, Shenzhen and other places.

On February 11, amid the joyful atmosphere of the Spring Festival, the reporter came to the Fengsheng Breeding and Planting Professional Cooperative. In the laying hen breeding greenhouse, the reporter saw that the automated feeding system was adding feed to the laying hens, the automated manure cleaning system was clearing manure, and eggs kept rolling out onto the egg racks... a scene of modern enterprise development. Zhao Gaolun, head of the cooperative, while operating the feeding system, introduced to the reporter that to feed 12,000 laying hens once, one automated feeding system can complete the work in 10 minutes, equivalent to the workload of 4 people for 1.5 hours.

Because laying hen farming is work that cannot stop, Zhao Gaolun and other cooperative heads and all the workers at the base stayed busy throughout the Spring Festival. Even on Chinese New Year's Eve, they were still busy processing feed, feeding, collecting eggs, cleaning manure and doing other work, and could only eat the reunion dinner in shifts.

Entrepreneurship: The hometown complex of returning migrant workers

As early as when Zhao Gaolun graduated from high school, he began to be involved in the egg business. During the three years he struggled in Sichuan Province, he specifically shipped eggs from Sichuan to sell in Guizhou.

After discovering huge business opportunities in the laying hen business, Zhao Gaolun resolutely returned to Pingba District to develop laying hen farming with relatives, realizing self-production and self-sales of eggs and obtaining more profits. During this period, the farm where Zhao Gaolun worked hired a retired old professor from the Agricultural College of Guizhou University to teach laying hen farming techniques. He then studied skills with the old professor for three years, laying a solid technical foundation for himself in laying hen farming.

Through eight years of entrepreneurship in Pingba, Zhao Gaolun became a senior laying hen farmer and egg operator. Coupled with the funds, technology and market resources accumulated over many years of traveling widely, his career flourished.

How did he come up with the idea of starting a business in the remote Doupeng Mountain of Caozichong, where transportation is relatively inconvenient?

"I am from Houchang!" One sentence completely removed all the reporter's doubts.

Yes! Sweet or not, it is all hometown water; close or not, they are all hometown people! The hometown complex brought Zhao Gaolun and four other Houchang people who had struggled away from home for many years together, moved the laying hen farming industry into the mountains, and led the masses to jointly launch a war against poverty.

"Choosing to develop laying hen farming in Houchang is not only because of the main reason of helping the hometown masses develop, but also because Houchang has intact ecological vegetation, no pollution, and excellent air quality." Zhao Gaolun said, "Nowadays people have increasingly high requirements for food safety. Only by taking the road of green and pollution-free food development will products have long-term vitality and competitiveness."

Zhao Gaolun said this and did the same. Fengsheng Cooperative processes corn itself into feed, and the eggs produced by pure grain feeding are very popular in the market. At present, the cooperative is applying for pollution-free agricultural product certification.

Zhao Gaolun (first from left), the person in charge, and workers are collecting eggs

Development: Party committees and governments accompanied us all the way

"We came here to start a business with a passion, and many things were not considered thoroughly. At the beginning of the business, the breeding base was still a desolate and barren place. The five founders jointly raised 1.5 million yuan as start-up capital, planning to use this money to buy equipment and build breeding greenhouses. But the budget for leveling the site and building roads and other infrastructure was insufficient. After the Party committee and government of Houchang Township learned of our difficulties, they actively gave us help and funded us to level the site and build roads." Talking about the development of the base, Zhao Gaolun did not forget the full support of Houchang Township.

In this way, with the joint efforts of the five returning entrepreneurs and the help of the Party committee and government of Houchang Township, the base was built, and the breeding scale expanded step by step. But as the base further grew, it brought a new development problem - lack of water! After Houchang Township learned of the situation, it actively asked relevant departments of Puding County for help. Finally, through the full help of the county and township, the water problem of the breeding base was solved.

In the first half of 2016, Puding County issued the "Three Platforms and Three Roads" preferential loan policy. Fengsheng Breeding and Planting Professional Cooperative immediately seized the opportunity of this benefit-to-the-people policy, absorbed 1.5 million yuan in preferential loan funds from 45 poor households as shares, realized interest linkage with poor farmers, and expanded the breeding scale to 48,000 hens in one step. According to estimates, through year-end share dividends, the 45 poor households received an average of 1,700 yuan per person, effectively giving play to the role of preferential loan funds and achieving the dual effects of increasing income for poor farmers and expanding and increasing efficiency for the enterprise.

The automated feeding system is adding feed to the laying hens

Poverty alleviation: Leading the masses to prosperity through multiple channels

In Meichong Village, when people talk about Luo Fuju's family situation, everyone shakes their head and sighs. Luo Fuju cannot speak, his wife left many years ago, and he has a 21-year-old son with intellectual disability. Father and son have almost no ability to develop industry and can only rely on subsistence allowance funds to maintain their lives.

But since the laying hen breeding base of Fengsheng Breeding and Planting Professional Cooperative was built, the lives of Luo Fuju and his son have undergone tremendous changes. The cooperative hired Luo Fuju to work at the base with a monthly wage of 2,200 yuan, and his son also followed him to live at the base for easier care.

When the reporter met Luo Fuju, he was indeed carrying corn off the truck. Although he could not express himself in words, from the way he worked hard, it was clear that he cherished this job very much.