Ran Junwan learns the chicken-raising manual for enriching the people, driving the masses to increase income and become prosperous

On a hillside in Liangjiabao, Zhongduo Subdistrict, black-boned chickens rolling about like black balls wander and scramble for food in a factory building that has not yet been completed, while several workers tie up chicken cages beside an incubator... This is the chicken farm of Ran Junwan, who was named a "Poverty Alleviation and Prosperity Model" this year.

In just a few years, Ran Junwan went from a "migrant worker" heading south to a boss with a vegetable base, a medicinal herb base and a breeding base. With persistence and hard work, he took off the poverty cap on his head and drove the poor households around him out of poverty.

Going south to work, with hidden worries

Before 2012, Ran Junwan and his wife were members of the southbound migrant workforce, but they did not find decent jobs. Instead, they took odd jobs here and there to make a living, with very meager income, which distressed them.

"Life as a migrant worker was very hard," Ran Junwan said. In the past, seeing others come back from working away seeming so impressive, he also wanted to go out to work and change his family's financial situation. But because he had no specialized skill, he did not find good work and had to follow others doing odd jobs like nailing boards. Odd jobs meant "one day here, no day there," with very unstable income, and he always worried about what to do the next day. They were very anxious.

With unstable income, expenses higher than back home, and no way to care for the elderly and children, Ran Junwan took his wife back to Liangjiabao in 2012.

Undeterred by failure, finally achieving success

After returning home, Ran Junwan looked at the mountains outside his door every day and worried: life still had to go on, money still had to be earned by himself, and he had no specialized skill. What should he do?

In his daily thinking, Ran Junwan thought: people nowadays all pursue green, ecological products, so why not use the advantages of the mountains to develop vegetables? He acted as soon as he spoke. In 2013, he used all his savings and, with the help of the village Party branch and village committee, built a small vegetable base locally, planting Korean ginseng, winter melon and so on. However, due to lack of experience and unsmooth sales channels, he did not make money that year.

Wasting a year with nothing to show for it made Ran Junwan's wife very angry. She thought his behavior was very unreliable and demanded that he continue to go out to work with her, but Ran Junwan refused.

"I always firmly believed that the industry I chose definitely had prospects for development, and after a year of experimentation, I had experience and certain sales channels, so I had to try again," Ran Junwan said.

Ran Junwan's persistence was correct. The next year, Ran Junwan's vegetable base made some money.

Shaking off poverty, driving prosperity

After making a profit, Ran Junwan became "insatiable." In 2015, through contact with outside businessmen, Ran Junwan expanded the scale of the base, developing from growing vegetables alone to growing vegetables and Chinese medicinal herbs together. The base expanded to more than 100 mu, achieving a net income of about 60,000 yuan that year, and driving more than 20 poor households to work at the base and increase their income. In 2016, Ran Junwan's total vegetable and medicinal herb area reached more than 1,000 mu, and the number of poor households he drove increased to about 70.

Also in 2016, Ran Junwan, whose business dealings had broadened his connections, together with the person in charge of a breeding enterprise, built a black-boned chicken breeding farm near the vegetable and medicinal herb bases, mainly selling chicks and eggs. At present, the farm has more than 2,000 black-boned chickens.

"My chicks and eggs are now in short supply, so I am expanding the scale," Ran Junwan said. Because he has good sales channels, he does not need to worry about sales. Since the farm currently cannot meet market demand, he plans to expand it to a scale of 50,000 breeding chickens. "By then, our farm will need more people to help, which can drive more people to increase their income," Ran Junwan said.