African guinea fowl farming helps farmers onto the road to prosperity

In recent years, more and more young people are choosing to start their own businesses; they are active-minded and quick to embrace new things. In Langao County there is just such a young man willing to be the first to eat crab, and through farming guinea fowl he has opened up a new road to prosperity.

In Yueba Village, Siji Town, Langao County, the reporter met Li Mingyong, who was feeding his "precious guinea fowl." Guinea fowl, also known as the pearl bird, originated in Africa; its whole body is gray-feathered with regular round white spots, shaped like pearls. Because its meat is delicious and nutritious, it is loved by food enthusiasts. A chance opportunity gave Li Mingyong, who was working away from home, the idea of farming guinea fowl. Li Mingyong, a villager of Yueba Village, Siji Town: "In 2013 I saw guinea fowl being sold in Shanghai. I saw that he hauled a whole cart and the returns were still good; he hauled ten or twenty thousand in a cart and sold them out in just two or three days, and his price was still decent, 70 to 80 yuan a jin, so I saw this was a hot item and still good, easy to sell."

Having got the entrepreneurial idea, Li Mingyong did not rush to seek quick success. He first went to Shanghai, Guangxi and other places where operations were already scaled up to consult, learn techniques and investigate the local market. Only after confirming that farming guinea fowl was a very promising project did he, with his family's support, begin building the farm. Li Mingyong: "After learning, I came back. I placed a 20,000 yuan order with them, then I went to Shanghai and quit my job, quit in March 2015, and built the farm in May."

Last May, Li Mingyong invested 170,000 yuan to buy three mu of land in Yueba Village, Siji Town, build a chicken farm, and introduce 2,000 African guinea fowl from Guangxi for raising.

Guinea fowl is a grain-and-forage-eating, grain-saving specialty poultry, with the characteristics of fast growth, broad feeding habits, disease resistance and strong adaptability. During the raising process, Li Mingyong worked out a set of ecological farming methods, which made the chickens' nutritional value even higher. Li Mingyong: "It's different from how others raise them, because ecological farming requires more investment than pen raising; ecological farming means eating corn and wild vegetables and wild grass from the slopes and mountains, without feeding any feed."

Through Li Mingyong's careful raising, the first batch of more than 2,000 guinea fowl introduced has now reached the market period, mainly supplied to hotels and rural restaurants, with good prices and sales, and very good customer feedback. This also gave him the idea of expanding the farming. Li Mingyong: "Going along this mountain to the highway down there is about seventy mu of land, with investment of about one million yuan. I plan to expand the farm, the sheds, the buildings, the incubators, open up the Langao market and gain a foothold, open up the Ankang market, and sell the chickens as far away as possible."