Veteran turns to chicken farming to start a business and get rich

Flocks of red junglefowl, sturdy in build, wearing blood-red "crowns" on their heads and covered in glossy, colorful feathers as if draped in brocade, hopped about lively under a stretch of verdant pine forest, crowing "cluck-cluck."

Recently, the author went to interview the red junglefowl farm in Liugu Tun, Jiangping Village, Siyang Town, Shangsi County. The farm is managed by a young man and an old farmer; the young man is a veteran named Tan Rigao. Three years ago, he felt that working in Guangdong was not the way forward in his life, so he gave up the chance to work as a taxi driver in Guangdong and returned home to start a red junglefowl farming business. At present, encouraged by Shangsi County's targeted poverty alleviation policy of "one industry per township, one specialty per tun," he plans to lead the surrounding people to develop red junglefowl farming together, expand the farming scale, create a Shangsi brand, raise market awareness, and sell Shangsi red junglefowl both inside and outside the county.

Now, Tan Rigao's red junglefowl farm covers an area of 60 mu, with an annual red junglefowl farming scale of more than 2,000 birds (as shown in the photo). The chicks are hatched entirely by the farm, fed on five grains, and raised free-range under the forest in an original ecological way; the meat is firm, juicy and delicious. Red junglefowl need 6 to 7 months to raise, each bird weighs about 1.5 kg, and they are sold at 100 yuan each; the annual output value is nearly 200,000 yuan, and the profit is also around 100,000 yuan. Tan Rigao has also opened a red junglefowl specialty store on Tuanjie Road in Shangsi County to make it convenient for merchants from inside and outside the county to place orders; sales are rising continuously, and the benefits are getting better and better.