He has a knack for snake farming, leading his fellow villagers onto the road to prosperity
Snakes, which most people find terrifying, have become a promising hundred-million-yuan industry in the hands of Zhang Zhuangbang.
Zhang Zhuangbang, who is in the prime of his life at thirty, is the chairman of the Danzhou Baofa Breeding Farmers' Professional Cooperative. The cooperative is located in Nanfeng Town, Danzhou City, and connects more than 20 farming households. It currently breeds more than 100,000 oriental rat snakes (also known as Ptyas mucosus).
At the current pace, by the end of 2017 it will have brought nearly 500 farming households on board. By then, the Danzhou oriental rat snake industry will give play to economies of scale.
8 years of unremitting effort to learn the craft
8 years is but a brief moment in the long river of time, but for Zhang Zhuangbang it has been an unforgettable experience in his entrepreneurial journey.
In 2009, by chance, Zhang Zhuangbang heard people say that farming oriental rat snakes was very profitable. So he crossed the Qiongzhou Strait and went on a "study tour" of oriental rat snake breeding bases in several provinces.
In 2010, Zhang Zhuangbang began trial-breeding oriental rat snakes. After that, he traveled many times to breeding bases both inside and outside the province to investigate and learn, seeking advice from many breeding experts.
Zhang Zhuangbang, who is now full of "snake expertise," explains that the oriental rat snake is a non-venomous snake, yellowish-brown on its back, with irregular black horizontal stripes on the rear part of its body, mainly distributed in southern regions.
When it comes to breeding techniques, he talks endlessly. For example, before snakes enter the shed they must undergo a "medicated bath" to prevent pathogens from entering the facility. For the "medicated bath," disinfectants such as boric acid and potassium permanganate can be used, diluted and then used to soak the snake's body for 2 to 5 minutes.
Through long-term unremitting investigation and research, in addition to mastering extensive breeding techniques and mainly using chicken meat for feeding, Zhang Zhuangbang also explored and fermented a kind of Chinese herbal medicine. "Using this well-fermented Chinese herbal medicine to feed oriental rat snakes is not only environmentally friendly, but also stimulates their appetite and strengthens their constitution after eating it," he says proudly.
Bringing along fellow villagers, making money together
With a certain level of technical skill, Zhang Zhuangbang, with his father's encouragement and help, raised 5 million yuan from various sources and in 2013 initiated the establishment of the Danzhou Baofa Breeding Farmers' Professional Cooperative.
"The purpose of setting up the cooperative is to bring villagers into snake farming and make money together," Zhang Zhuangbang says. Through the "cooperative + farmers" model, it specializes in a distinctive integrated industry covering oriental rat snake breeding, hatching and selling snake hatchlings, breeding technology extension, epidemic prevention services, and the purchase and processing of commercial snakes.
Zhang Zhuangbang reveals that the cooperative is still in the foundation-building stage, mainly supporting farmers in snake farming and temporarily not selling externally. The cooperative provides snake hatchlings to farmers, trains farmers in breeding techniques, and is responsible for buying back commercial snakes, with a minimum protective price of 100 yuan/jin, and snake eggs at 30 yuan each, ensuring that farming households have a stable source of income.
Snake farming is quick to profit because snakes have strong reproductive capacity. Zhang Zhuangbang says that farming households currently connected to the cooperative generally raise more than 300 female snakes each, and one female snake produces about 30 eggs per year, so farmers can make a profit that same year by selling snake eggs.
The Danzhou Baofa Breeding Farmers' Professional Cooperative is located in the Qitan Village Group of the Malingpai Miao Village Committee, Nanfeng Town. The number of snakes raised has now exceeded 100,000, with an annual output value of more than 30 million yuan.
Speaking about the base's development, Zhang Zhuangbang tells reporters that at the current momentum, by the end of 2016 it will bring more than 300 farming households on board, and by the end of 2017 more than 500, raising more than 400,000 oriental rat snakes, with annual output value expected to reach 120 million yuan.
Expanding the snake farming industry and raising added value
The large-scale breeding of oriental rat snakes by the Danzhou Baofa Breeding Farmers' Professional Cooperative has also driven related industries. In terms of raw materials alone, the food required by oriental rat snakes is mainly chicken meat, which has to a certain extent stimulated Danzhou's chicken farming industry.
In December 2015, Zhang Zhuangbang's "oriental rat snake breeding" project won third prize in the startup enterprise group of the Hainan Provincial Entrepreneurship Competition.
This project has found fertile ground in Danzhou. It is understood that in order to promote the rapid development of the project, the Nanfeng Town government focused on adjusting the agricultural industrial structure, adopting a method in which the government pays half and farmers pay half, purchasing snake hatchlings at 150 yuan each from the cooperative to support farmers on the road to shared prosperity.
Zhang Zhuangbang explains that the plan is to carry out multi-level development of snake products: the first level is to portion and bag snake meat and connect with supermarkets and stores, so that snake meat can reach the dining tables of thousands of households. The second level is to refine snake blood, snake gall, snake oil and so on to bring out their different functions. For example, snake blood can be used to make medicinal liquor to treat various diseases; snake gall can also be used medicinally to enhance human immunity and delay aging; snake oil can be used for physical therapy on burns and is also a high-end pure natural cosmetic.
As for how to make the snake industry bigger and stronger in the next step, Zhang Zhuangbang says: "The key is to focus on deep processing and raise added value."