A promising young man from Baisha wants to open a road to wealth by raising golden chickens
While many university graduates move from place to place in big cities for their dreams; while many university graduates are not used to working and go home to rely on their parents; while many university graduates face difficulty finding employment, Fu Nanteng, a university student from Baisha, chose to return to his hometown to raise chickens and build a solid business. With the support of the local government, after earning his first pot of gold in life, he did not forget to give back to society and hopes to help more people get rich together.
Recently, under the guidance of Zhang Fan, director of the Agricultural Service Center of Jinbo Township in Baisha Li Autonomous County, a reporter from the International Tourism Island Business Daily came to a rubber forest in the mountains of Baisha to interview the local promising young man Fu Nanteng and learn about his story of giving up a city job with a monthly salary of more than 4,000 yuan and returning home to raise chickens and seek prosperity.
Strangers intrude into the rubber forest, startling golden chickens into flight from the branches
At around 4 p.m. on December 18, the winter sunlight shone through the treetops onto the small mountain village of Jinbo Township in Baisha County, Hainan, warm and cozy.
When the reporter and companions passed through a rubber forest in Baida Village, Jinbo Township, the first thing that came into view was a beautiful, picturesque original ecological scene - on the branches of the rubber trees perched flocks of golden pheasants.
When everyone carefully and quietly walked deeper into the rubber forest, the startled pheasants cried out one after another and flew toward a simple house not far away.
"The house ahead is Fu Nanteng's chicken farm!" Director Zhang Fan pointed to the simple iron-sheet house where the pheasants had flown down and told the reporter that the rubber forest around the iron-sheet house was neither too close to nor too far from the village, making it a kind of isolated "golden chicken forest."
Director Zhang explained that every time he came from the township to visit Xiao Fu, he saw golden pheasants flying all over the branches, and every time he saw this scene, he always felt that this place was a "golden chicken forest" full of hope.
Working for two years earned only more than 10,000 yuan; persisting in a dream without fear of gossip
As they spoke, the reporter and companions were already standing among the golden flock of pheasants. Not far away, a refined young man wearing glasses walked over from the rubber forest and greeted everyone in a friendly way.
If Director Zhang had not said that the young man before them was Fu Nanteng, it would have been hard for the reporter to connect him with a chicken farmer.
According to the introduction, Fu Nanteng, 27 this year, graduated in 2012 from a key university in Anhui. After graduation, he worked in Hangzhou for two years in e-commerce and websites, earning four to five thousand yuan a month. After careful calculation, apart from the high urban rent, living expenses, and travel fares, after two years only 15,000 yuan remained.
"Last year, my father unfortunately passed away from illness, and the whole burden of the family fell on my shoulders. My younger brother in university and younger sister in middle school both needed large expenses, and my small salary was nowhere near enough." Fu Nanteng said that in order to help the family escape its difficulties, he deliberately returned home to do market research and then quit his job to return to the village to raise chickens.
"When they heard I was going home to raise chickens, my university classmates and colleagues laughed at me for being foolish, and relatives and friends kept urging me not to go home and make a fool of myself and become a joke." Xiao Fu said that everyone thought that a university student raising chickens at home was hard and dirty, and not as respectable as sitting in an office as a white-collar worker.
Relying on a perfect ecological environment, a first attempt succeeded in one go
"In order to save a bit on travel fares, a friend and I each rode a three-wheeled motorcycle, traveling 400 km round trip, passing through Danzhou, Qiongzhong, and Tunchang, and bought back 500 pheasants. That is how we got started." Fu Nanteng recalled that in July 2014, after handling the aftermath of his father's funeral, he immediately began his chicken-raising business.
"At that time, when giving water, I was afraid the chicks would choke; when feeding them, I was afraid the chicks would choke on the food." Fu Nanteng told the reporter with a smile that because he had no experience raising chickens and was worried that wild cats and snakes would come eat the chicks, he simply ate and slept in the same room as the chicks every day.
Through diligence and eagerness to learn, Fu Nanteng quickly learned from the internet and training classes how to feed chickens, prevent and treat chicken diseases, and other knowledge. Hard work pays off. Under Fu Nanteng's careful care, by the beginning of 2015, all 500 of his chicks had grown up and were ready for market. After deducting costs, he made a net profit of more than 10,000 yuan. After succeeding on his first attempt, Fu Nanteng's determination and confidence in raising chickens increased greatly. He decided to expand the scale of the chicken farm.
"Because our pheasants grow in a rubber forest surrounded by mountains on all sides, eat small insects and earthworms, and drink mountain spring water, the meat is smooth, chewy, fresh, and delicious." Fu Nanteng said that because the ecological environment in the mountains is superior, the market for his pheasants is very good.
With government help, earning 80,000 yuan a year; wanting to lead more people to prosperity
"In early 2015, after selling those 500 chickens, I began to expand the scale of the chicken farm, added three chicken houses, and bought 2,000 chicks. Together with the 1,000 chicks supported by the government, I raised a total of 3,000 chickens." Fu Nanteng said gratefully that with the support of the Jinbo Township government, his net income this year had already reached more than 80,000 yuan.
Fu Nanteng introduced that when the Jinbo Township government learned he had returned home to start a business, it encouraged him to form a cooperative and use his professional e-commerce skills to open an online store to drive more villagers to raise chickens and prosper. In December this year, with the support of the Jinbo Township government, he had already led 5 households of villagers, established the Baisha Shanshui Planting and Breeding Cooperative, and carefully designed the packaging for pheasant eggs.
"I am now starting to use the e-commerce skills I learned at university to sell Jinbo's ecological agricultural products such as Chinese yam, pheasants, hairy potatoes, and lingzhi through online and offline channels." Speaking of his greatest ideal, Fu Nanteng said he hoped that, according to the township's plan, he could build up the "golden chicken, golden egg" brand and lead more villagers to prosperity.
"At the beginning of this year, our township leaders heard that there was a university student named Fu Nanteng in the village who was diligent and down-to-earth and had already returned home to start a business. So they supported him with a batch of chicks." Director Zhang told the reporter that Township Party Secretary Wu Mei and Township Head Zeng Yongjun paid special attention to promising young people like Xiao Fu. The township leaders hoped that Fu Nanteng would build a chicken farm integrating incubation and chicken raising, develop Jinbo's "golden chicken" industry, and lead more villagers to prosperity.