Wu Lixin, physically disabled but strong-willed, hatches a fortune by "borrowing chickens to lay eggs"
In 2011, he was a deputy to the Taizhou Municipal People's Congress, a leader in Zhejiang Province's new socialist countryside construction and a winner of the Golden Bull Award, and made China's Top Ten Honest and Trustworthy Good People list;
In 2012, he was named a leader in poverty alleviation and prosperity in Taizhou and an outstanding chairman of a farmers' professional cooperative in Zhejiang Province;
In 2013, he was named a star of self-reliant entrepreneurship in Taizhou and received the Ministry of Agriculture's Agricultural Harvest Award (for the third consecutive year);
In 2014, he was named an advanced individual in China's first poverty alleviation program;
At the mention of Wu Lixin, people may not know that he has received so many honors, but the people of Xianju are especially familiar with this name. He is a disabled man whose left leg was left disabled by polio, the Party branch secretary of Fuyang Village in Baita Town, the chairman of the Xianlv Native Egg Professional Cooperative, and a Xianju farmer whose heart is tied to the "golden land" and to disadvantaged households. "Physically disabled but strong-willed" is the best summary and interpretation of his spirit and character. With his swaying steps he has walked an extraordinary life and written many wonderful stories.
A village road that strengthened his conviction
In September 1968, Wu Lixin was born in Liangtan Village, a poor mountain village in Baita Town. He was the fifth child in his family and the youngest. At the age of 5, an attack of polio left one of his legs lame.
At the age of 27, Wu Lixin graduated from the veterinary health quarantine and inspection secondary specialized class of the Central Agricultural Broadcasting and Television School and became a livestock and veterinary technician. He was later appointed by the county agricultural bureau as head of the Baita Town Livestock and Veterinary Station, where he worked for more than 20 years. He was successively awarded honorary titles including outstanding county livestock and veterinary technician and advanced individual in county-wide animal epidemic prevention work.
At the age of 28, he gloriously joined the Communist Party of China, and in the same year was unanimously elected by the villagers as Party branch secretary of Liangtan Village, becoming the Party branch secretary of Baita Town's only high-mountain poverty-stricken village. At that time, Liangtan Village had more than 60 households and a population of more than 200. It was the only high-mountain poverty-stricken village in Baita Town. The villagers' per capita income was less than 500 yuan, and the village had no collective economy.
If you want to get rich, first build roads. This was the first thing he thought of after taking office. With strong support from higher-level departments and through his and all the villagers' arduous efforts, in 1997 a 3.5-kilometer winding mountain road was opened to traffic, ending the history of Liangtan people carrying loads on their shoulders, hauling things by hand and traveling on foot for generations, and fulfilling his childhood dream.
How to lift himself out of poverty? How to lead the villagers out of poverty? These were what Wu Lixin, then Party branch secretary of Liangtan Village, thought about most. Considering the characteristics of the mountain area and his own professional skills, he first set up a family chicken farm. After several years of hard work, he was the first to escape poverty and became the "richest man" in the whole village. After tasting the benefits of raising chickens and selling eggs, Wu Lixin repeatedly invited county technicians to inspect Liangtan Village and discuss how to help all the village's farming households escape poverty and become prosperous. In 2001, Liangtan Village was listed by the county agricultural bureau as a "Xianju County Native Egg Production Base," and all villagers began specializing in household-based natural free-range production of native chickens.
In order to get everyone to raise more chickens and produce more eggs, Wu Lixin began implementing "borrowing chickens to lay eggs" in the village. In this way, all the villagers of Liangtan Village became Wu Lixin's chicken-raising households. Wu Lixin himself went around markets, hotels and restaurants, and to friends and relatives to promote native eggs.
As the market expanded, the single-household native chicken breeding and sales model could no longer meet market requirements. In May 2003, Wu Lixin founded the Xianju County Xianlv Native Egg Professional Cooperative and registered the "Xianlv" trademark for his native eggs. From then on, his native chicken breeding and native egg sales embarked on a path of scale, branding and organization.
One egg that made him hold fast to a responsibility
When prosperous, remember the source; when prosperous, strive to advance.
In 2008, Baita Town took the lead in implementing the low-income farming household entrepreneurship and income-increasing project in our county, and the Xianlv Native Egg Professional Cooperative was designated by the town as a key assistance platform. With the government as a backing, Wu Lixin became even more confident in developing native eggs, so he gradually extended the "borrowing chickens to lay eggs" plan to those low-income farming households.
After the news that raising chickens could also make people rich spread in Baita, Wu Lixin's Xianlv Native Egg Professional Cooperative attracted more and more disadvantaged people.
In 2009, Wu Lixin invested more than 2 million yuan to build the thousand-mu Xianlv Ecological Park by the Weijiang River, constructing more than 10 rearing sheds, raising 3,000 to 5,000 chickens, and implementing three-dimensional ecological breeding. He also used it as a breeding training base for disabled people and low-income farming households, providing free space, chicken sheds, water and electricity for disabled people and solving their employment difficulties.
In order to pursue economies of scale, Wu Lixin went from village to village and from household to household, mobilizing villagers to raise native chickens, distributing chicks free of charge, imparting without reservation the techniques and methods he had learned to the villagers, and purchasing native eggs at market prices, so that these low-income farming households did not have to bear any risk, could raise chickens with peace of mind and were guaranteed increased income. The villagers said that farming households had three worries about raising chickens: first, worry about having no money to buy chicks; second, worry that their techniques were not good enough; third, worry that there was no market for the eggs. Wu Lixin's cooperative adopted a "three frees" policy, namely free chicks, free routine epidemic prevention and free training in breeding techniques, and implemented guaranteed-price recovery after production, purchasing each egg at a protective price of 1 yuan. The cooperative had 14 technical personnel specifically responsible for helping members solve technical difficulties. If chicken-raising households encountered problems during the rearing process, they only needed to make one phone call, and technical personnel would come to their door to solve them. This greatly reduced the chicken-raising risks of low-income farming households, gave breeders a "reassurance pill," enabled more than 200 low-income farming households to increase income by an average of 3,000 yuan per household, and accumulated experience and set an example for the county's work of enabling low-income farming households to start businesses, innovate and strive for a moderately prosperous life.
Over the years, he has adhered to the operating mechanism of "creating a brand through standards," promoted scientific and technological development and strategic innovation, and the base and products have successively won honors including "Zhejiang Province Pollution-Free Agricultural Product Base" and the gold award of the Zhejiang Agricultural Expo. In 2007, the cooperative was confirmed as a "Taizhou Municipal Standardized Farmers' Professional Cooperative," and in 2008 it was rated a "Provincial-Level Demonstrative Cooperative."
A new village that made him persist in a hope
In 2013, when administrative villages were merged, Wu Lixin, as expected by all, went from being the secretary of a small village of more than 200 people to being the secretary of a large village of more than 1,000 people. Under his leadership, the two committees' cadres from three villages quickly integrated, and work advanced methodically.
Since the "Five Water Co-governance" initiative in 2014, under his leadership, Fuyang Village comprehensively carried out comprehensive rural environmental improvement work and became a model village for "Five Water Co-governance" in Baita Town.
Since 2015, Fuyang Village's special rectification work on yellow-skinned houses has involved 128 households and 199 rooms in total, with 762 sq m of facade painting, 3,107 sq m of whitewashing, and 10,960 sq m of both whitewashing and painting, totaling 14,826 sq m. In order to effectively stimulate the villagers' enthusiasm, Wu Lixin and the village's two committees resolved that, on the basis of town financial subsidies, each household that actively cooperated with the yellow-skinned house rectification would receive an additional subsidy of 20 yuan per sq m. At the same time, Wu Lixin organized Party members and cadres to use a method of responsibility contracting and group-based advancement, with the village's two committees each taking charge of contracted areas and implementing the work group by group and household by household, ensuring the smooth completion of the work.
In 2016, taking advantage of Fuyang Village's pairing with the Municipal Health and Family Planning Commission assistance team, Wu Lixin organized and carried out the Party-building crowdfunding activity "Caring for Party Members, Walking with Benefit" through the platform of the Party branch of the Xianlv Native Egg Cooperative, deeply tapping the surplus value of cooperative Party members and helping 19 rural disadvantaged households increase income. Each farming household was paired with a Party member responsible person, a technical instructor and a poverty alleviation responsible person to carry out heartfelt, hands-on assistance so that they could master agricultural techniques. Through the form of "Party organization + cooperative + base + crowdfunding," the Party organization's social influence and cohesion were expanded, and a new path of Party organizations serving and promoting rural development through "mutual promotion and win-win" was explored.
In just 3 years, Fuyang Village successively and smoothly completed the construction of a home-based elderly care service center, the land lease for the Zhejiang Province Waxberry Research Institute, and the policy handling work for the Taiwan Farmers' Entrepreneurship Park project.