Raising chickens in the tea garden achieves a win-win, and this is Zheng Yifeng's choice

As soon as you step into the Gaomeishan Family Farm in Qikou Village, Luxi Township, Qimen County, you can see lush green tea plants and thousands of free-range chickens leisurely foraging in the tea garden, a scene of lively activity and tranquility in harmony. "These chickens live on the insects and grass in the tea garden, and the eggs they lay are large and taste fresh. The tea garden no longer needs to be sprayed to prevent pests or to remove weeds, and the chicken manure also nourishes the growth of the tea plants; the tea is also organic tea and sells at a good price," explains farm owner Zheng Yifeng.

Zheng Yifeng's practice of raising chickens in the tea garden was started in 1998. In August 2013, with policy support and the help of agricultural technicians, Zheng Yifeng registered the Gaomeishan Family Farm, the first family farm in Qimen County. Raising chickens in the tea garden is a three-dimensional ecological agricultural model, establishing a tea garden ecology of "using feed instead of fertilizer," "using chickens to prevent pests," and "using chickens to remove weeds." Compared with a tea garden that only grows tea, it not only brings in extra income from raising chickens, but also saves costs and increases efficiency. According to Zheng Yifeng's estimates, each mu of tea garden can save more than 400 yuan in total costs for labor, feed, fertilizer, and pesticides. Because the tea garden is not sprayed with pesticides and not fertilized with chemical fertilizers, the quality of the tea is improved, and the benefit per mu increases by more than 500 yuan. His tea garden chicken-raising and planting model yields a net income of about 4000 yuan per mu of tea garden, several times the per-mu benefit of ordinary local tea gardens, making the economic benefit quite considerable. At present, the Gaomeishan Family Farm has 113 mu of mature tea plants, and the tea garden is stocked with free-range chickens in 5 batches per year, with a cumulative annual output of 22000 free-range chickens sold, and the farm has been included in the list of demonstration family farms in Anhui Province.

Under the demonstration and driving effect of Zheng Yifeng's Gaomeishan Family Farm, this ecological agricultural model of raising chickens in the tea garden was quickly spread and promoted. Many villagers watched, learned, and followed suit, and he always taught his planting and raising experience without reservation, leading everyone to become wealthy together. In 2011, he established the Luxi Township Qikou Free-Range Chicken Breeding Professional Cooperative, helping and driving a group of members onto the road to prosperity through planting and raising.