College graduate returns home to raise chickens, leading the folks of Pingchang to prosperity together

In February of this year, at the "Most Beautiful Pingchang People" award ceremony held in Pingchang County, everyone came to know a young man in his early twenties who wore glasses. He is Wang Hongren, a college graduate who came out of a large farmhouse courtyard in Feilong Village, Qiujia Town, Pingchang County, and who has now returned to his hometown to work as a chicken keeper. His other titles include: deputy to the Bazhong Municipal People's Congress, member of the Jiusan Society, and chairman and general manager of Sichuan Qiming Agricultural Technology Development Co., Ltd. He was commended by the Pingchang County Party Committee and County Government as "the Most Beautiful Entrepreneur among the Most Beautiful Pingchang People."

In July 2010, 24-year-old Wang Hongren graduated from China Agricultural University with a Bachelor of Agriculture degree in animal science. At that time, Wang Hongren faced two precious opportunities in life: either go to the University of Adelaide or Macquarie University in Australia to pursue a master's degree, or go to work for COFCO Group. However, he gave up both opportunities and made a decision that shocked everyone: return to his hometown to raise chickens.

"What? You want to come back and raise chickens!?" When he learned that his nephew Wang Hongren was determined to return home to raise chickens, his youngest uncle Wang Qiang was astonished. "A graduate of China Agricultural University, no less, who won't study abroad or become a white-collar worker at a state-owned enterprise, but insists on coming back to be a 'chicken keeper' - won't people laugh their teeth out?"

The ensuing criticism from villagers, opposition from relatives, and complaints from his parents did not shake Wang Hongren's determination to start his own business. "I am the son of a true farmer. I grew up in the countryside and feel incomparably close to every tree and blade of grass in my hometown. I studied animal science, and I just want to use the knowledge and strengths I have learned to start a business. This is not bringing shame on you..." He worked on his parents and explained patiently. After Wang Hongren's persistent efforts, his parents were finally persuaded, and many relatives and friends also expressed understanding and support.

After extensive and in-depth investigation and feasibility studies, Wang Hongren decided to invest in intensive laying hen farming. In September 2010, he spent all the family's savings and borrowed more than 300,000 yuan from relatives and friends to invest in the early-stage construction of the project. However, funding shortages soon emerged, and he could only borrow everywhere. There was no telling how many trips he made, how many nice words he said, or how many cold receptions he endured. During that unforgettable period, Wang Hongren experienced the warmth and coldness of the world and tasted life's bitterness.

In February 2011, the first 10,000-layer hen farming base was officially put into operation. However, that year the market was weak, and sales took a sharp turn for the worse. Looking at the warehouse full of eggs, he was frantic with worry and had to go around opening up new sales channels. At the hardest times, he carried eggs on his motorcycle and went along the noodle shops, restaurants, and cake shops on Provincial Highway S201, asking door to door and selling one household at a time, thinking that if he could sell one box, that was one box. In this way, he traveled to dozens of surrounding townships.

After dozens of trips to Dazhou, Chongqing, and other places to make contacts, he finally found cooperative customers and initially solved the product sales problem. Because market prices remained at a low level, Wang Hongren lost more than 200,000 yuan that year.

At this point, his family's confidence in his continued entrepreneurship also began to waver. They complained that not only had he failed to make money, but he had instead taken on a pile of debt, and they strongly urged him to find a stable job in a big city. But relying on his precise grasp of national agricultural industry policies and his high confidence in modern agricultural science and technology and his own professional competence, Wang Hongren remained devoted and quickly shook off the shadow of his first entrepreneurial failure, deciding to make a last stand and start all over again.

In 2012, Wang Hongren's industry project attracted great attention from the county Party committee and county government and received project support from relevant departments, which added to his confidence and courage. So he once again took on debt and raised funds, promptly adjusted the product positioning, introduced new varieties better suited to local consumption habits, and actively expanded new sales markets, selling products to large and medium-sized cities such as Chengdu, Chongqing, and Dazhou. At the same time, he boldly launched an under-forest ecological farming project for local free-range chicken breeds. In this crucial year, market opportunities finally arrived, product prices kept rising, and the enterprise not only came back to life but also achieved quite considerable returns, realizing a profit of more than 500,000 yuan that year. He finally earned the first pot of gold in his life and tasted the sweetness of success for the first time.

To expand the farming scale, Wang Hongren also launched the "Bashan Red Chicken" industry project in Wanxing Village, Qiujia Town. Today his laying hen farm covers more than 300 mu, raises 90,000 laying hens, produces 80,000 fresh eggs per day, and has an annual income of more than 10 million yuan. Wang Hongren has become a veritable "chicken-raising king."

Wang Hongren succeeded in starting his business. His farming base was not only officially authorized by China Agricultural University as a China Agricultural University scientific research and internship base and the southwest regional demonstration base for "Nongda No. 3" grain-saving small laying hens, undertaking multiple research topics from the China Agricultural University laying hen research group, but was also rated as a Bazhong Municipal Standardized Demonstration Farm and a Sichuan Province Pollution-Free Livestock and Poultry Production Area. His products "Kezhen Ecological Eggs" and "Kezhen Fresh Eggs" both obtained the "Pollution-Free Agricultural Products Certificate" issued by the Ministry of Agriculture. His products sold briskly all the way and were deeply favored by consumers inside and outside the province. They were not only ordered competitively by several supermarkets in the county town, but also sold as far as Dazhou, Chongqing, Guangzhou, and other places.

The successful Wang Hongren never forgot his original intention of leading his hometown folks to prosperity together. In early 2013, he joined with more than 60 surrounding farming households, raised 3.3 million yuan, and registered and established the "Pingchang County Qiming Ecological Farming Professional Cooperative," absorbing more than 500 members and forming a scale farming operation with an annual inventory of 100,000 grain-saving laying hens and more than 300,000 free-range local chickens sold per year. The cooperative's annual output value was more than 30 million yuan, and each farming household's average annual income increased by 3,000 yuan.