28-year-old village Party secretary develops chicken farming industry to lead villagers out of poverty

Lan Zhiping inspects the growth of Qibainong chickens at the Dahua Qibainong Jiaqin Breeding Cooperative (photo taken on August 11).

Lan Zhiping inspects chicks in the chicken coop (photo taken on August 17).

Nongxiong Village, Qibainong Township, Dahua Yao Autonomous County, Guangxi, is located deep in the mountains, with poor land and a backward economy; of the village's nearly 2,000 people, 123 households are impoverished. Now, 28-year-old returning young man Lan Zhiping has taken on the heavy responsibility of leading the people out of poverty.

Lan Zhiping worked for many years at a logistics company in Nanning. During that time, he noticed that Qibainong chickens from his hometown were often shipped to hotels in Nanning, where demand exceeded supply. In August 2014, Lan Zhiping decided to return home to raise Qibainong chickens. Soon, the Qibainong chicken farming he developed gave the people hope of escaping poverty through the breeding industry, and by the end of that year, Lan Zhiping became village Party secretary.

Lan Wangming is also a returning young man, and this year he plans to raise 1,000 chickens. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Xin. Because of strong customer demand, this year Lan Zhiping partnered with 4 villagers to establish the "Jiaqin Breeding Cooperative," and absorbed impoverished households as shareholding investors. At present, the cooperative raises more than 2,300 chickens, and a hatching base capable of hatching 8,000 to 10,000 chicks a month is under accelerated construction.

This year, Dahua County has decided to make Qibainong chicken farming a major industry for targeted poverty alleviation in impoverished mountainous areas, adopting the "base + cooperative + farmer" model, and plans to develop 2 million Qibainong chickens in 2016. Lan Zhiping hopes to ride this momentum to drive more impoverished people to join in and escape poverty as soon as possible.

At the mobilization meeting for the development of the Qibainong chicken farming industry in Nongxiong Village, village Party secretary Lan Zhiping drew on his own entrepreneurial experience to mobilize the people to develop free-range chicken farming. Facing hesitant villagers, Lan Zhiping said: "Don't be afraid of losses, because if you don't do it, you will never be able to get rich. I can teach you how to raise our Qibainong chickens well..."