Raising chickens for fifteen years, my heart blossoms with joy to see my fellow villagers grow rich
Zhu Chuanyin is an entrepreneurial farming expert in the mountains of Baimao Town, Yuexi County. Over the past 15 years, he has gone from a layman in the farming industry to a seasoned professional, from having no market for his products to being unable to meet demand, from going it alone to now leading surrounding farming households... Every bit of progress has been built on 15 years of dedication, sweat and perseverance. He is a farmer, yet through his own actions he has taught us to "do things with heart and live with gratitude." This year he was named one of "Yuexi County's Most Beautiful Farmers."
Starting from scratch, beginning from "one"
Zhu Chuanyin is from the Zhusi Group of Zhupu Village, Baimao Town, Yuexi County. Slim in build and of medium height, he exudes sharpness and capability. In 1991, having just graduated from junior high school at only 16, Zhu Chuanyin went to Zhangzhou City, Fujian Province, to work in a ceramic tile factory. In 1999, having learned that his hometown could support farming, he resolutely returned to Yuexi, bought a farming book at a bookstore, and began his arduous entrepreneurial journey.
Zhu Chuanyin's farming path began with a single egg, at almost zero cost. "In the early days of my business, I had no premises and no capital. I relied on reading books to learn a bit about farming, and could only take one step at a time, striving to keep every step steady," Zhu Chuanyin recalled with emotion. In order to try various types of farming, he also once grew greenhouse vegetables and raised goats, rabbits, pigeons, golden pheasants, as well as free-range native chickens in woodlands and hatched chicks. In the end, he chose to raise native chickens.
However, the farming path in the early days of his business was not very smooth. Just as he was figuring things out, he ran into the 2003 SARS outbreak, and then the 2004 avian influenza. "Those two years dealt a heavy blow to farmers. Not only could we not sell the chickens we raised, but they also became infected with disease and died in batches," Zhu Chuanyin recalled.
Entrepreneurship is not achieved overnight; the key is to persevere with heart. "In business, I never look at how much money there is, only at the ratio of daily sales to expenses. If it is positive growth, then I am still making progress, and that gives me confidence." With this optimistic entrepreneurial mindset and the perseverance to keep going every day, Zhu Chuanyin devoted himself entirely to raising chickens. Day after day, year after year, he grew his operation from raising 300 native chickens a year in 1999 to now raising more than 10,000 adult chickens a year.
Today, he has 50 mu of mountain land and nearly 10,000 native chickens. He has not only set up a chicken specialty store in the county seat, but also established stable partnerships with merchants in Wuhan, Hefei and other places. His total annual output is around 100,000 chickens, with annual sales reaching more than 300,000 yuan.
Leading ten with one, driving employment
Because his operation is located at the foot of Yangjiaojian Mountain, Zhu Chuanyin from the start sold green, pollution-free native chickens and eggs under the name "Baimao Yangjiaojian Native Chicken," and registered Yangjiaojian Ecological Agriculture Co., Ltd. "In recent years, 'Yangjiaojian Native Chicken' has become well known because I usually focus on product quality. Even if the market sells out, I would rather have no stock than pass off someone else's eggs as 'Yangjiaojian Native Chicken,'" Zhu Chuanyin explained.
At Zhu Chuanyin's farming base, flocks of native chickens come running at once. Carrying a load of corn kernels on his shoulder, he affectionately calls the chickens "little chicks." Yangjiaojian is remote, and given his father's generation's honesty and simplicity, his father and two uncles left two uncles unmarried and childless. The eldest uncle is 65, the second uncle is 57, and he also has a 42-year-old brother who remains unmarried to this day. Zhu Chuanyin cares for all of their daily lives. For more than a decade, a family of eight has relied on the chicken-raising business, following a family management model of distribution according to need and each contributing according to ability, living a thriving life and truly achieving one person starting a business and the whole family being employed.
Zhu Chuanyin's maternal uncle originally worked away from home. Encouraged and led by Zhu Chuanyin, after returning to his hometown in 2011, his uncle raised more than 4,000 native chickens, earning an average income of 70,000 to 80,000 yuan per year. "In recent years, raising chickens not only earns money, but also lets me care for my 80-year-old mother at home. It is much better than working outside," his uncle said with a smile.
In 2012, Zhu Chuanyin established the Yuexi Zhulinwan Native Chicken Farming Cooperative and registered the "Yangjiaojian" trademark, and his business officially got on track. "I had no teacher; I relied entirely on teaching myself. Every failure accumulated experience. Over 15 years, I have honed my farming experience through exactly this kind of trial and error," Zhu Chuanyin said.
"I have been learning chicken-raising techniques from Zhu Chuanyin for more than a year. One thing he often says is, 'In anything you do, first be a good person; this is the most basic way of doing business.' It has deeply inspired me," said Liu Jianyan, a young man from Gufang who followed Zhu Chuanyin to learn chicken-raising techniques. Today, using his own entrepreneurial experience, he has led more than 30 farming households in the county and surrounding areas, ranging from several thousand chickens to a few hundred, leading by example, helping one household at a time and making one household at a time successful.
Helping the poor and those in need, devoted to public welfare
In his spare time, Zhu Chuanyin is active online under the screen name "I Sell Chickens, Wife", actively promoting his hometown and devoting himself to public welfare causes.
It is understood that he not only takes good care of several uncles at home, but also single-handedly supported Zhu Jiuhe, a solitary elderly person in his village in his 70s, all the way through to his funeral. He raised several thousand yuan in charitable donations both online and offline for a kidney failure patient in his village, earning unanimous praise from local residents. In 2001, he led villagers to the Hubei Academy of Agricultural Sciences to meet with professors, and after returning home planted southern early-maturing pears. Now the yield is 5,000 jin per mu, with returns exceeding 10,000 yuan per mu, setting a poor family on the path to prosperity.
In 2012, Zhu Chuanyin joined the Yuexi Volunteer Alliance, and in his spare time from business he travels through the country lanes and alleys, keeping the needs of disadvantaged groups in his heart. "Although each donation is not much money, it represents a piece of love. Sometimes, the caring force in society can let a family in difficulty see hope," Zhu Chuanyin said.
For many years, Zhu Chuanyin has always stuck to the farming industry and devoted himself to public welfare causes. "I always feel that burning incense far away is not as good as doing good deeds close at hand. Doing more things that are meaningful to society and using my modest strength to help the people around me who need help makes me feel very fulfilled," Zhu Chuanyin said.
"Chuanyin is a distinctive farming expert in Zhupu Village. On the basis of running his own business well, he actively leads surrounding farming households to prosper together, and has made a positive contribution to the 'dual training and dual leading' work," commented Zhu Chuanyang, Party branch secretary of Zhupu Village.
"Although I am a farmer, I am actually a businessman. In our simple mountains, there are plenty of people who work hard, are diligent and enterprising, kind and plain, pragmatic and truth-seeking, down-to-earth, courageous in innovation and indomitable. They are all the most beautiful farmers. The essence of the most beautiful farmer is, in fact, simplicity and kindness, and these two words I will never forget no matter how far I go."