Xiaoyangguan in Pingba, Guizhou Province Gets Rich by Raising Sheep

"Where are you? Your 'preferential loan' has been approved, come over and process it." Gan Bin, director of the Yangchang Credit Union of the Pingba Rural Credit Cooperative Union, urged over the phone.

"Great, I was just urgently needing this money to expand my breeding scale. I didn't expect it to come through so quickly." On the other end of the line, Ai Shengming, a villager from Daogu Village, Yangchang Township, breathed a long sigh of relief.

It is understood that in recent years, the Pingba Rural Credit Cooperative has actively responded to the national call for targeted poverty alleviation, taking rural financial poverty alleviation as a breakthrough point and launching a series of beneficial services such as the "preferential loan" to help farmers develop industries and increase their incomes.

With the help of financial poverty alleviation, Ai Shengming, a poor household with drive and the ability to endure hardship, decided to expand his breeding scale so that his family could live a good life.

Along the beautiful Yangchang River, the reporter arrived at Lanba Group, Daogu Village, Yangchang Township, Pingba District, a small village with clear mountains and waters.

Entering Ai Shengming's home, the reporter saw that a family of nine, old and young, lived in two small single-story houses.

"My parents are both honest farmers who worked the land their whole lives but never earned much money, and life was always hard." Ai Shengming said.

In 1999, after graduating from junior high school, Ai Shengming gave up his studies to help his parents with farm work at home and support his older sister and older brother through school. At 18, he went to Zhejiang to work, making textiles, but because he was young and had no skills, he could not earn much. After working for about ten years, he could barely cover his own expenses.

In 2011, after many years away, Ai Shengming returned home to work, making plastic pellets at an enterprise in the industrial park. However, due to an operational error, his left hand suffered a level-three disability. Of the 150,000 yuan compensation, after medical treatment only 60,000 yuan remained.

"At that time, the expenses of the whole family, old and young, depended on my income from working. After my hand was disabled, the life that had originally begun to improve fell into difficulty again." Ai Shengming explained that in the summer of 2013, because his disability prevented him from going out to work, and his hand injury was gradually healing, he used the only compensation money he had to buy 60 sheep and began raising goats.

"At that time I thought, we are already this poor anyway, so I might as well use the money to do some breeding business. Maybe we can still live a good life." Ai Shengming, who is disabled in body but strong in spirit, said this.

After buying the sheep, Ai Shengming had no money left. To save money, he kept the sheep in a cave outside the village. The marketing cycle for goats is one year, and with the cold winter approaching, without a pen to keep out the cold, how could they make it through the winter?

"At that time, the money in hand could not even maintain the family's basic living, let alone build a sheep pen. But if I did not build one, maybe those dozens of sheep would not survive, and the money I invested would not be recovered. I was so worried I could not even sleep." Ai Shengming explained that in desperation, he remembered a loan passbook issued by the credit union when it established files and ratings for villagers in the village.

"Because the family was poor, at that time it was difficult even to borrow money from relatives and friends. Could a bank lend me money?" Ai Shengming, with a try-anyway attitude, reported his difficulties to the credit union staff.

"After learning about my situation, the warm-hearted credit union employees issued me a small farmers' credit loan of 35,000 yuan at once, relieving my urgent need." After receiving this money, Ai Shengming hurriedly built a sheep pen, and the 60 sheep made it through the winter smoothly. The next year, Ai Shengming's goats sold for a good price.

"With financial support, plus my own hard work, I believe there is still hope for getting rich." Having earned his first pot of gold, Ai Shengming became more and more confident in breeding. In 2015, in order to expand the breeding scale, the credit union provided him with another 50,000 yuan in credit support. Now the farm already has 230 sheep, worth 300,000 yuan. With more sheep on the farm, feed became a problem, so Ai Shengming once again went to the credit union, hoping it would offer him advice.

In March 2016, the rural credit cooperative issued Ai Shengming a "preferential loan" targeted poverty alleviation small farmers' credit loan of 50,000 yuan, encouraging him to contract 10 mu of land for greenhouse vegetable planting, which solved his usual working capital difficulties. At the same time, he planted winter supplementary grass on the hillside to solve the winter grass supply problem. This year, Ai Shengming plans to expand the breeding scale to 300 sheep by the end of the year and strive to apply for a small and micro enterprise. Standing at the foot of the hill where the farm is located, Ai Shengming's eyes were full of hope for the future.