Raising chickens under the forest helps farmer Huang Shouqiang realize his dream of prosperity

Near a broad stretch of woodland, rows of simple chicken coops and duty rooms come into view, and a flock of chickens of fairly similar weight forages and cools off under the trees. This is the "free-range mountain chicken" farm of Huang Shouqiang, a farmer in Pingzizhai Village, Anluo Township, Jinsha County.

In light of the large area of woodland and grassy slopes at his temporary residence, Huang Shouqiang came up with the idea of living off the mountains and raising "free-range mountain chickens" according to local conditions, and he went online to seek advice and bought relevant technical materials to study carefully. In early December last year, he adopted the method of leasing land from the relevant farmers for a fixed period of 10 years, quickly built more than 500 sq m of pens and duty rooms and purchased related facilities, and set up on the spot a small ecological circular chicken farm suited to labor and management.

The project was initially completed in February this year, covers more than 20 mu, and has so far involved an investment of nearly 200,000 yuan, with more than 2,000 black-bone chickens and local chickens being raised. He will adopt the methods of snowballing and borrowing, and plans to invest more than 100,000 yuan before April 2017, expand the breeding scale to more than 5,000 birds, market more than 1,000 birds per month, and, after deducting capital input factors, achieve an annual net income of more than 150,000 yuan.

Because Huang Shouqiang's chickens are reasonably priced and of excellent quality, some nearby restaurants have already come to place orders in advance.