Chicken Commander Huang Fuchang returns home to start a laying hen business, giving back to his fellow villagers and leading them to prosperity
Recently, stepping into the laying hen farm set up by Huang Fuchang in Daodong Village, Shatian Town, Pinggui Management District, Hezhou City, Guangxi, what came into view were white laying hens pecking leisurely under a grove of osmanthus trees, some frolicking, some resting, looking truly adorable.
Huang Fuchang, who had just returned from delivering eggs to the city in his car, left the author with a first impression of being gentle, steady, shy and full of energy. According to him, loading free-range eggs into his car before 10 o'clock every day and taking them to the city to sell has become his daily routine, and also the happiest "income" period of his day. He told the author that the eggs are often booked with "child betrothals" - usually before the eggs are even laid, customers have already reserved them in advance. They are sold not only at the Shatian Town market and to primary and secondary schools, but also to the Hezhou City farmers' market and surrounding cities and counties (districts). This is mainly thanks to the information he posts on WeChat Moments and the fact that all the chicken feed is made from green ingredients such as corn, soybean meal and wheat bran.
Huang Fuchang studied landscape architecture in university. In February last year, he gave up a generous salary at a company in Dongguan, Guangdong, and returned home with his newlywed wife to start a business. He told the author that the reason he chose to return home to start a business was entirely out of filial piety to his parents and a desire to give back to his hometown. Starting a business back home allows him both to be with his parents and to drive the economic development of his hometown.
What to do after returning home was something Huang Fuchang had not actually thought through clearly. "Better to be the head of a chicken than the tail of a phoenix." This is a saying he often repeats. After investigating many places, he found that ecological eggs have high nutritional value and excellent returns, and also fit the trend of modern people pursuing a healthy lifestyle. Moreover, there were very few farms in Pinggui Management District, or even in Hezhou City, specializing in and raising ecological laying hens on a large scale. After some deliberation, he decided to use his savings from two years of working away from home, plus his parents' savings of many years, to invest more than 100,000 yuan in setting up a farm and become a "Chicken Commander."
To solve problems with breeding technology and sales, Huang Fuchang participated many times in laying hen breeding technology training and online training, strengthening his learning and exchanges, and finally found a successful path of ecological farming and raising through "Internet Plus" modern agriculture. At present, his laying hen farm has more than 1,000 laying hens in stock, producing about 700 eggs per day. Calculated at the current market price for eggs, he earns 700 yuan a day from eggs alone, and his annual income is expected to reach 200,000 yuan.
Huang Fuchang not only set up an ecological laying hen farm and an osmanthus tree plantation, but also founded a steel structure and colored tile company. Today, influenced by his success in returning home to start a business, university graduates from Pinggui Management District who had started successful businesses elsewhere have also returned home to invest, covering industries such as Chinese patent medicine, tea and fruit and vegetable planting, special breeding of poultry, ecological tourism development and food processing, driving the development of modern agricultural industry and ecological rural tourism. Last year, the total output value of agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery in the entire management district reached 3.07 billion yuan, up 8.5% year on year; it received 2.922 million tourist visits and total tourism revenue of 3.003 billion yuan, up 15.96% and 23.07% respectively year on year.
Looking to the future, Huang Fuchang is full of confidence. He said he wants to make under-forest ecological free-range eggs a trump card, apply for a registered trademark, and print the words "Xiaoliang River Free-Range Eggs" on the packaging boxes. At the same time, he wants to join forces with university graduates who have returned home to start businesses to expand and strengthen the forestry industry and building materials industry through land transfer, and lead villagers in developing orchard rural tourism, so that more villagers can find employment and start businesses at their doorstep and achieve moderate prosperity in step with the rest of the country as soon as possible.