Partridge farming helps college student Zhou Jie realize his entrepreneurial dream

Zhou Jie, of Sanjiaozhuangzi Township in Qitai County, spent 2 years after graduating from university setting up the Jiefeng Special Breeding Base in his hometown. The base now has begun to take shape, with annual income reaching 100,000 yuan. He realized his entrepreneurial dream through the power of science and technology.

On the afternoon of July 12, the author saw more than a thousand partridges and pheasants scrambling for food at Zhou Jie's special rare-bird breeding base.

Zhou Jie said: “After two years of hard work in starting this business, my venture has gradually got on track this year. In the future, I plan to make the breeding of partridges, pheasants, peafowl and other specialty birds bigger and stronger, turning it into a leading enterprise that drives the economic development of the township.”

Zhou Jie, who loved raising small animals since childhood, graduated from Changji Agricultural Vocational and Technical College in 2014. In his graduation year, he happened to see a partridge farming project online. The project required little investment, produced quick results, had low costs and did not demand high technical skills, so he decided to raise partridges. At the end of August that year, he traveled to Beijing, Shandong and other places for on-site inspections, learned and mastered the breeding techniques, and brought back more than 300 breeding eggs for reproduction, obtaining his first batch of chicks.

Zhou Jie said: “Starting a business is still very difficult. Because I had no experience, many small details were not taken into account during the early preparations, so I ran into considerable obstacles in the first year.”

At present, in order to expand his business and lead his fellow villagers to get rich together, Zhou Jie has established the Jiefeng Special Rare-Bird Breeding Professional Cooperative locally, cooperating with some farmers to expand the scale of specialty rare-bird breeding. When talking about his next plans, Zhou Jie said: “I want to use maggots to raise partridges, truly achieving green farming, with chicken manure supplied to the orchard, and strive to achieve a 'small cycle, big economy.'”

Zhou Jie said: “With the government's support and help from all sides, my specialty breeding has now begun to show results. In the future, I will lead farmers in the township and villages to carry out scientific breeding, making it a new way for them to increase their income.”