Quail farming lifts Jiangxi Le'an's dream of prosperity

Recently, this writer visited the quail farm founded by Zhang Huaming, a young man who returned to his hometown, in the Zhangjia village group of Longxing village, Daifang town, Le'an county. Before even entering the farm, the chirping calls of quails could be heard. Zhang Huaming, who was busy collecting quail eggs, said happily: "Quail farming can be said to be a farming business very suitable for ordinary rural households, with small investment, fast growth, a short cycle and broad market prospects. This year, the 30,000 quails I raise can bring a net profit of more than 100,000 yuan from egg sales alone. Add to that the year-end sale of old quails with low egg-laying rates, and it can bring in nearly 200,000 yuan in income a year."

Zhang Huaming, now 39, joined the green barracks with great enthusiasm after graduating from middle school, and 8 years of military life became a precious asset in his life. After being discharged, he went into business with friends in Ningbo, Wenzhou and other places in Zhejiang, and relying on a hard-working spirit and honest operation, his business grew ever more prosperous, and he also dug up the "first bucket of gold" of his life.

After several years of striving, Zhang Huaming, who had achieved some success in business away from home, set his sights on the vast development space in rural areas. In 2015, he resolutely gave up his flourishing business and returned to his hometown to raise quails. He said: "Over these years, I have kept deep in my heart a dream of returning home to start a business. When I came back to my hometown during Spring Festival last year, I conducted market research in Le'an to look for a suitableentrepreneurial project. Through the survey, I found that Le'an's quail market is currently a blank, with huge market potential. So I seized this business opportunity and returned to my hometown to raise quails."

In order to master quail farming techniques, Zhang Huaming paid out of his own pocket to study at a nearby quail farming base in Fengcheng, and soon mastered a whole series of quail farming techniques such as feeding, medication, disinfection and vaccinations. In October 2015, Zhang Huaming invested 380,000 yuan and built 2 standardized farming greenhouses on a patch of hillside behind his house, bought a truck and farming equipment such as ultraviolet lamps and heaters, and in November of that year purchased the first batch of more than 30,000 quail chicks from Fengcheng, beginning his entrepreneurial journey. Zhang Huaming also became the first person in Le'an county to raise quails.

Everything is hard at the beginning. After founding the quail farm, Zhang Huaming threw himself wholeheartedly into the quail farming business, mixing feed, feeding, cleaning manure and carrying out epidemic prevention, carefully tending the young quail chicks, working alone day and night. His wife saw it and felt pain in her heart, so she took the initiative to give up the comfortable life in the city and resolutely followed him back to their old home in Longxing village to raise quails together. Speaking of his wife Zhang Guohong, Zhang Huaming said with emotion: "Feeding quails is dirty and tiring. Although my wife had never done farm work before, in order to support my business she did not shrink from it and came back from the city to help with the farming, which moved me deeply."

After more than 3 months of raising, the young quails began to lay eggs. Now, 30,000 quails can lay more than 350 kg of eggs per day, with daily income of more than 3,000 yuan. The quail eggs produced are not only supplied to the Le'an market, but also sold to surrounding places such as Yongfeng, Chongren, Yihuang and Fengcheng, and their fame is gradually increasing.

In order to develop and expand the quail industry and drive the broad masses of villagers out of poverty to prosperity, in May this year Zhang Huaming gathered 12 farming households to establish the Le'an County Minfeng Quail Professional Cooperative, taking the development path of "cooperative + base + farming households". In addition, Zhang Huaming arranged for 7 poor households, including villager Nie Chunhe, to work at the farm at a daily wage of 80 yuan, responsible for feeding, egg collecting, manure cleaning and other work. For villagers who wanted to engage in farming, he taught them techniques without reservation, gave them seedlings on credit and helped them sell quail eggs. In August this year, Gong Hailang, a farmer from Tuoshang village, Gongfang town, went to the cooperative to learn farming techniques. Zhang Huaming taught him hand by hand. Now, Gong Hailang raises 12,000 quails. About this, Gong Hailang said gratefully: "I could embark on the road of quail farming thanks to Huaming's help and guidance."

Speaking of future development, Zhang Huaming said with full confidence that in the future he will continuously expand the farming scale, expand sales channels and rely on the cooperative to drive more farmers out of poverty to prosperity.