Migrant worker from Yilong returns home to start ecological agriculture and leads fellow villagers to prosperity
Using the contract-raising method, Chen Huadong signed contracts with farming households for raising chickens and sheep on their behalf, and bought back the chickens and sheep once they were fully grown.
Ravines crisscrossed the land, transportation was cut off, and information was scarce... This was people's impression of Yanyan Village, Lishan Town, Yilong County in the past. Recently, a reporter from Sichuan News Network walked into Yanyan Village and found the air filled with the aroma of liquor, with the sounds of chickens and sheep heard everywhere. Local residents say it is the leadership of local villager Chen Huadong, who led his fellow villagers to prosperity together, that has brought about the current thriving scene in the village.
Working away from home to accumulate capital
Starting ecological agriculture after returning home
Arriving at Yanyan Village, Chen Huadong gave the Sichuan News Network reporter a first impression of medium build, wearing a pair of glasses, looking refined and gentle, yet appearing very capable.
After a few pleasantries, Chen Huadong began telling stories of the past. Chen Huadong said he is 43 years old this year, a native of Yanyan Village. In 1995 he went to Beijing to work, mainly doing electrical appliance repair, and later shifted to chemical equipment installation. In just over ten years, Chen Huadong accumulated a certain amount of capital and had the idea of returning home to start a business.
Chen Huadong told the Sichuan News Network reporter that after returning home during the 2013 Spring Festival, he saw that the roads at home were connected, the fields were left barren, and the lives of ordinary people had not changed much, which deeply moved him.
"If you choose agriculture, it should be a direction of sustainable development." Just like that, Chen Huadong's business idea won the support of his family and village officials. In April 2013, Chen Huadong rented more than 500 mu of land and invested more than 12 million yuan, planting grass, raising fish and tending sheep in Sanxi Village and Yanyan Village of Lishan Town, and building greenhouses to raise locusts and earthworms for chickens, taking the path of ecological agriculture to provide green agricultural products to the market.
No experience in planting or breeding
After failure, sent dedicated staff to learn breeding techniques
At the beginning of starting his business, because he had worked away from home for many years, Chen Huadong had never farmed, raised chickens, or tended sheep, so developing green agricultural products was indeed a challenge. In 2013, except for the fish project, all the projects Chen Huadong developed ended in failure. Chen Huadong said the main problems at the time were in technology and management.
In early 2014, Chen Huadong, in the form of orders, mobilized the people of his village and surrounding villages to plant sorghum and corn, all of which he bought back. In the second half of the year, he set up a distillery, using distillers' grains as feed for sheep and chickens, bought back all the sorghum stalks and corn stalks from the ordinary people, ensiled them to feed the sheep in winter, and continued to raise locusts and earthworms as feed for free-range chickens.
Having tasted failure, Chen Huadong not only studied technology assiduously, but also sent dedicated staff to other places to learn ecological breeding techniques and experience in ecological disease prevention and treatment.
Feeder Zhou Anzhong said that through patient guidance, Chen Huadong sent him to other places to specifically study ecological breeding techniques, and in practice he summed up experience in ecological disease prevention and treatment.
Signing contracts with farming households
Driving surrounding people to increase income and become prosperous
Through more than two years of exploration, Chen Huadong has basically explored a path of ecological agriculture suited to local development. The enterprise Chen Huadong built aims to provide green food to the market and drive surrounding people to increase income and become prosperous.
To this end, the company actively promotes zero-risk benefit projects for farming households, using the contract-raising method, signing contracts with farming households to raise chickens and sheep on their behalf, letting farmers raise sheep and chickens.
At present, more than 30 households in Yanyan Village still face economic difficulties. Based on their actual circumstances, Chen Huadong provides free of charge throughout the whole process young sheep and chicks, breeding, epidemic prevention and other techniques, and then buys back the grown animals.
Chen Huadong told the Sichuan News Network reporter that at present his enterprise produces more than 1,000 jin of pure grain liquor every day, raises more than 360 large-eared sheep and Hu sheep, and by the end of the year can breed more than 230 lambs; using forest land, it raises free-range chickens on a scale of about 5,000 per batch, and together with those raised by other villagers, sells about 20,000 per year.
"With a path to prosperity, there is hope." Villager Chen Hu said that with Chen Huadong's help, he rented 50 mu of forest land to raise free-range chickens, was provided free of charge with 300 chicks already raised for two months per batch, raised two batches a year, and could achieve an annual income of about 60,000 yuan.