College-graduate village official leads villagers to start a cooperative and find the road to prosperity
In 2011, college-graduate village official Zhu Chao led villagers in establishing the Xuyi County Guantan Qiwa Broiler Chicken Breeding Professional Cooperative, thus embarking on the road of entrepreneurship. Today, the cooperative produces 2 million broiler chickens annually, with annual profits of more than 3 million yuan and an average household income of more than 70,000 yuan for cooperative members. At the finals of the first Xuyi County Youth Maker Competition, which concluded at the end of last year, Zhu Chao won first prize with this project. Looking back on his entrepreneurial experience over the past few years, Zhu Chao said with deep feeling that young people should aim high, and even if they endure hardship and fatigue, they should not give up their dreams, because the sun always comes out after the storm.
Borrowing money to start a cooperative
In July 2011, when Zhu Chao graduated from Nanjing Audit University, he once had the opportunity to stay in Nanjing, but he ultimately chose to return to his hometown of Xuyi and serve as a village official in Qiwa Village, Guantan Town.
After arriving in Qiwa Village, Zhu Chao's first thought was how to carry out his work. Through visits, he discovered that several villagers raised chickens under the umbrella of a leading enterprise in the breeding industry, and the annual income of these breeders was more than ten times that of ordinary crop farmers. This helped him find his entry point for a career: raising chickens.
Zhu Chao also recalled the entrepreneurship training he had attended before starting work, which mentioned the various advantages of the "leading enterprise + cooperative + farmers" entrepreneurial model. A path to entrepreneurship gradually became clear in his mind: mobilize villagers to establish a cooperative, cooperate with large enterprises, and raise chickens together to get rich.
Without delay, Zhu Chao immediately approached several villagers he knew well, including Han Weisong, Tian Guangliang, and Han Xianmi, to mobilize them, only to have cold water poured on him: "You want us to invest more than 100,000 yuan to build chicken houses and raise chickens, so why don't you do it yourself?"
If you want others to follow you, you first have to show them by doing it yourself. But where would the money come from? Zhu Chao had no savings, so he had to scrape together funds from every possible source. In the end, he borrowed 50,000 yuan from relatives and also obtained a 100,000 yuan subsidized loan from the bank, finally putting together the startup capital. Soon, a 1,000-square-meter standardized chicken house rose from the ground. When the villagers saw that he was "playing for real," they began to seriously consider his proposal. The Qiwa Broiler Chicken Breeding Professional Cooperative was finally established.
The cooperative brings prosperity to villagers
Chen Tao from Laozishan Town, Xuyi County, was originally a fisherman on Hongze Lake, and his wife is from Qiwa Village. When he came to visit his father-in-law, he often heard villagers discussing the economic benefits of raising chickens. Compared with fishing, he felt that raising chickens was quite good. Later, after making inquiries and learning more, he joined the cooperative and used his savings all at once to build three standardized chicken houses. At present, his annual profit is more than 200,000 yuan, making him one of the outstanding breeders.
Driven by Zhu Chao, a total of 42 households and more than 100 villagers joined the cooperative and took up broiler chicken breeding. At present, the cooperative's total investment has reached more than 5.61 million yuan, the area of standardized chicken houses has reached 160 mu, the annual number of broiler chickens marketed has reached 2 million, the annual profit has reached more than 3 million yuan, and the average household income of cooperative members has reached more than 70,000 yuan. Qiwa Village has also become a widely known broiler chicken breeding base.
The operation of the cooperative has also given rise to interesting logistics teams such as the "chicken-catching team," the "epidemic prevention team," the "transport team," and the "chicken manure team." As the names suggest, the "chicken-catching team" is specifically responsible for catching, crating, and loading market-ready broiler chickens; the "epidemic prevention team" is responsible for vaccinations and trimming the beaks of chicks; the "transport team" is responsible for transporting adult chickens out and bringing chicks back; and the "chicken manure team" is responsible for collecting chicken manure and then selling it to fertilizer plants.
These logistics teams are all composed of disabled people or people with employment difficulties from Qiwa Village. They each have a fixed income of about 2,000 yuan per month on average, which greatly eases the pressure on their lives. For example, Zhang Pingsong of the "transport team" originally worked away from home, which made farming inconvenient and also made it impossible for him to care for his family. Now he has bought a farm vehicle to help the cooperative with transportation. He earns no less than he did when working away from home, and he can also take care of his family.
Entrepreneurship is not afraid of "Lost on the Journey"
When it comes to raising chickens, it is truly not easy. Zhu Chao did everything himself and tasted every kind of hardship. In summer, when the outdoor temperature was 33°C, the temperature inside the chicken house was at least 37°C. He had to enter the shed once every hour to drive the chickens up to move around, give them water, and help them lower their body temperature. After finishing these tasks, his clothes were soaked through. Over time, his body was covered with prickly heat, and mosquito and insect bites left him covered in bumps. In winter, he still had to get up in the middle of the night to check the temperature inside the chicken house so that he could raise it in time, otherwise the chicks would freeze to death.
Hardship and fatigue were not the main issue; what truly tested a person were the risks that lurked everywhere. When avian influenza broke out in 2013, the sales channels for free-range chickens and free-range chicken eggs were immediately blocked. At that time, the market-ready broiler chickens could not be sold and began to get sick, with losses of more than a hundred birds every day. In the end, Zhu Chao took the sick chickens to Yangzhou University, where experts prescribed a specific medicine that brought the situation under control. That time, he nearly lost money.
Another time, on a delivery trip to Nanjing, he had an episode straight out of "Lost on the Journey." At that time, Zhu Chao and his partner had loaded the goods the night before and worked until one or two in the morning. The next day, they set out at 7:30 in the morning. On the way back, he smelled something burning in the vehicle. He stopped to check and found that the water tank was leaking. So he quickly left the highway at the nearest exit, but just after passing the toll station, the vehicle stalled. He pushed the vehicle to the roadside and waited for the repair shop to send someone. He did not get home until late at night.
Looking back on his entrepreneurial experience over the past few years, Zhu Chao said with deep feeling that young people should aim high, and even if they endure hardship and fatigue, they should not give up their dreams, because the sun always comes out after the storm.
Setting foot on a new starting point in e-commerce
"I devoted myself to entrepreneurship because of both external encouragement and inner passion," Zhu Chao said. During orientation training, he had already received training in entrepreneurship and also listened to some senior college-graduate village officials share their own experiences, which first sparked the idea of entrepreneurship. In the process of leading villagers in entrepreneurship, he received care and support from many higher-level departments and leaders, all of which was transformed into his motivation for doing business and starting ventures.
Devoting himself to entrepreneurship also brought Zhu Chao the brilliance of life. He was rated as one of the "Top Ten College-Graduate Village Officials of Xuyi County" for many consecutive years; in 2013, he was awarded the title of "Huai'an Rural Youth Leader in Getting Rich" by the Communist Youth League Municipal Committee; and last year, he was awarded the title of "9th National Rural Youth Leader in Getting Rich" by the Ministry of Agriculture and the Communist Youth League Central Committee.
Last year, participating in the first Xuyi Youth Maker Competition benefited Zhu Chao greatly. Through exchanges with other contestants, he realized that only by combining online and offline channels could the market be further expanded. Although engaging in e-commerce now was already somewhat late, he had to seize this final opportunity. Later, with the care and support of the organization department of the Xuyi County Party Committee, relying on the Xuyi County College-Graduate Village Officials E-Commerce Service Center, he partnered with business associates to establish Huai'an Shanli Renjia E-Commerce Co., Ltd., specializing in the online sales of Xuyi local specialties such as free-range chickens, free-range chicken eggs, and crayfish.