Nanning man returns home to raise ducks, earns 100,000 yuan a year after years of drifting through odd jobs

With no specialized skill, he worked for years without saving any money

Chen Zhiyi, 39, is from Shitang Town, Hengxian County, and worked for many years without managing to save any money. After this year's Spring Festival, Chen Zhiyi returned to his hometown to start a business, becoming a "duck commander." In just half a year, Chen Zhiyi has already sold 3 batches of ducks and earned tens of thousands of yuan. From a poor young man with no specialized skill to a "duck commander" who now earns quite a bit of money, what is Chen Zhiyi's story?

　 Working for years

He still had to borrow money

To invest in a duck farm

In the eyes of the villagers, Chen Zhiyi is a very hardworking person. When he came back for festivals, other young people would gather to drink and play cards, but he never joined in, instead taking the opportunity to do farm work in his own fields.

In 1995, at just 18 years old, Chen Zhiyi began working in Nanning. "Back then, the salary was only three or four hundred yuan a month, and meals and lodging weren't included. A coworker and I each paid 50 yuan to rent a small room in an urban village. Every month, apart from basic expenses, I saved all the rest." Over 20 years, Chen Zhiyi worked in various industries in Nanning. The longest he did was at a company in Nanning that produced pedal tricycles, where he worked for nearly 10 years. But even at its best, that job only brought in just over 3,000 yuan a month.

In 2016, seeing his mother getting older and both of his children reaching critical ages for their schooling, Chen Zhiyi began toying with the idea of returning home to start a business. It just so happened that a poultry farming company came to the village to promote duck farming to villagers. As long as villagers provided the site and labor, the company would advance the ducklings, feed and other costs, to be deducted when the ducks were sold. Investing in a farm required 100,000 yuan, but after 20 years of working in Nanning, Chen Zhiyi could not even come up with 10,000 yuan. In the end, the full 100,000 yuan was borrowed from relatives and friends.

After raising the money, Chen Zhiyi quickly built a 1,200 sq m farm. Just after the Spring Festival, the first batch of 3,000 ducklings was brought in, and Chen Zhiyi's farm opened with great fanfare.

Income increases

He also wants to plan

To expand the site scale

Chen Zhiyi did the math for the reporter: each batch of ducks only needs to be raised for 45-50 days, and each duck can bring a profit of 5 to 6 yuan. He has already sold 3 batches of adult ducks, earning tens of thousands of yuan, more than he earned working in Nanning before.

Although the farm has already gone into production smoothly, that does not mean Chen Zhiyi can rest easy. Chen Zhiyi said he still faces quite a few difficulties. For example, rural electricity infrastructure is weak, and almost every time it is windy or rainy there is a power outage - his farm is in the open countryside far from the village, and at night the lighting and water pumping for the entire duck shed cannot do without electricity for even a moment. "Whenever this happens, the electrician usually does not come to fix it until after dawn the next day when the rain stops."

Chen Zhiyi said that according to the current farming scale, he can earn at most 100,000 yuan a year; right now the duck farm has only 3,000 ducks, and one person is enough to take care of them, while other people's farms can raise tens of thousands of ducks at a time. "After I pay off the debts I owe relatives and friends, I'll save the money I earn next and keep investing to build another farm to increase my income."