Fengdu returnee migrant worker founds a farm and forges a path to prosperity

Qin Xiankun, 36 years old this year, is a farmer from Group 4 of Nanmu Village, Shuanglu Town, Fengdu County (Chongqing). He is not tall and is on the thin side. During a recent interview, the author found him quick-witted, sharp in conversation and decisive in action. It turns out he once crossed the ocean to work as a "foreign worker" in Africa, which broadened his horizons. After returning home, he went back to his hometown to start a business raising egg pigeons, goats and other livestock, and last year his net income reached more than 300,000 yuan.

"Working abroad" taught him advanced things from overseas

After graduating from junior middle school, Qin Xiankun was not yet 17, but having grown up in the countryside, he had a hardworking and endurance-filled spirit, so he followed the young and middle-aged adults from his village out to work. But because he had little education and no specialized skill, he could only do odd jobs on construction sites such as carrying mortar buckets, moving bricks and hauling cement.

"Even though I am short and not very strong, I don't slack off. I do everything seriously and never complain of hardship or exhaustion, so the contractor appreciated me and my co-workers trusted me," Qin Xiankun said. But the pay for a laborer was not much, only half that of a skilled worker, which made him always want to change his working environment.

In 2006, through the introduction of an overseas labor dispatch agency, Qin Xiankun followed a construction company across the ocean to "work abroad" in Africa. The passport, medical examination, round-trip air tickets, and local food and accommodation costs were all borne by the employer. At that time, going abroad to work was for many migrant workers a dream beyond reach.

But when this dream actually came true, Qin Xiankun felt somewhat disappointed, because overseas laborers were required to have a relatively high level of education, certain skills and a certain level of foreign language ability. He lacked all of these, so he could only communicate with fellow villagers around him and still did odd jobs on the construction site.

"Even so, through what I saw, I still broadened my horizons abroad, gained knowledge, learned some advanced things and updated my ideas," Qin Xiankun said.

Returning home to start a business, beginning with raising egg pigeons

In 2009, Qin Xiankun returned to China. Should he continue doing odd jobs on construction sites, or change to another occupation? He fell into thought.

"At the time, a friend was raising laying hens at home and the returns were not bad. After going to see it for myself, I decided to take the same path. Who knew that this friend strongly opposed it, and instead suggested I raise egg pigeons," Qin Xiankun said. At first he thought his friend was afraid of having one more competitor, but later, after a comprehensive survey of the market, he discovered that the prospects for egg pigeons really did look promising.

Action beats desire, and Qin Xiankun quickly built a farm. But after all, he was a beginner and lacked experience in breeding and sales, so he decided to cross the river by feeling the stones, and at first introduced only more than 80 pairs of egg pigeons. Besides learning breeding techniques from books, he also went to several egg pigeon farms inside and outside the county to "seek guidance," combining theory with practice. Seeing each egg pigeon grow up and smoothly lay eggs made him especially happy, sweeter than drinking honey water.

But turning each pigeon egg into money was not so easy. He first thought of the township's free market, so he brought two baskets of pigeon eggs to the street to hawk them. After a whole day, his voice went hoarse from shouting, and he sold only forty or fifty, and the price did not reach the ideal level either. Facing this setback, he did not lose heart, but analyzed the reasons and actively looked for a breakthrough in the market.

"I suddenly realized that because of the rich nutrition and special value of pigeon eggs, their consumer group is not ordinary people, so they cannot be peddled on the street like chicken eggs," Qin Xiankun said. So he changed strategy and went door to door promoting the products to restaurants and hotels. Sincerity can move even stone, and he finally opened up sales channels.

Developing diversified farming and embarking on the road to prosperity

"Do you know how much a pigeon egg sells for right now?" Qin Xiankun casually picked up a small pigeon egg and asked. Seeing that the author could not answer, he held out five fingers of his left hand and waved them.

"Fifty cents," the author answered. Seeing him shake his head, "Could it be five yuan?" This time he gave a heavy nod. Seeing that the author was a little surprised, he smiled proudly and said, "Exactly, right now one pigeon egg is worth the price of one jin of chicken eggs."

Qin Xiankun said that it was precisely after opening up sales channels that his pigeon eggs gradually found buyers, to the point that later demand exceeded supply. So he rented two mu of land near his hometown, invested 300,000 yuan, built a new farm, and expanded the scale of egg pigeon breeding to a maximum stock of more than 1,800 pairs. But he was not satisfied. While raising egg pigeons, he also started raising goats, and transferred more than 3 mu of surrounding land around the farm, using the manure produced by the egg pigeons and goats to grow forage grass, forming a green ecological circular planting and breeding model.

The author saw that around the farm there was also a flock of native chickens foraging freely, and was just about to ask when Qin Xiankun said, "These chickens are also raised by me. During the Spring Festival I already sold more than 130, and now only a little over 20 are left."

Qin Xiankun believes that every industry has market risks, as well as price differences between peak and off seasons. The reason he developed diversified farming was to avoid risks, achieve complementary farming returns and maximize income. He said that next he would gradually expand the breeding scale according to market demand, and strive to raise 5,000 pairs of egg pigeons annually and market more than 200 goats per year.