Chicken manure grows Ningling pears, he gave up a high salary to raise chickens

Geng Haichao talks freely about his dream with reporters inside the breeding shed

When we arrived at the state-owned forest farm in Ningling County, a large standardized breeding community under the trees caught everyone's eye.

Inside the community are rows of chicken sheds. In the sheds, plump and sturdy chickens wait to be sent to market. Trucks coming to collect chickens line up in a queue. These broiler chickens will appear on dining tables across the country.

The owner of the breeding community is named Geng Haichao, whose hometown is in Yangyi Township, Ningling County, and who is a young man just 27 years old. The Ningling County Longteng Minfa Breeding Cooperative that he founded can send 3 to 4 million broiler chickens to market each year, leading more than 100 farming households onto the road to prosperity. Locally, everyone calls Geng Haichao the "Chicken Raising King."

More importantly, Geng Haichao has a dream in his heart of building an ecological hometown. His standardized breeding community is built right inside the forest farm, which itself is a reuse of idle resources, and the chicken manure and other waste produced by the farm will be buried in Ningling County's vast pear orchards, creating value once again...

"My greatest wish is that after leading farmers to prosperity, we can live in a green, ecological countryside," Geng Haichao said.

Giving up a high salary to return home and start a business

Geng Haichao is 27 this year. Because his family was poor, he left school in his teens and went elsewhere to make a living. Later, his older brother ran a veterinary medicine business in Zhengzhou and came into contact with the breeding industry. On his brother's recommendation, he began learning chicken-raising techniques from an expert at Zhengzhou College of Animal Husbandry.

"At that time I paid my own way to learn breeding techniques from the teacher, so I definitely had to study hard, otherwise there would be no way out," Geng Haichao said. After studying diligently, he gradually mastered breeding techniques.

Later, on his teacher's recommendation, he went to work for Qingdao Zhengda Food Co., Ltd., the largest joint-venture breeding enterprise in the country, and continued to study breeding techniques with the company's authoritative experts. Gradually, the young Geng Haichao became an expert in breeding. Another breeding enterprise in Qingdao took a liking to him and hired him as technical director with a monthly salary of 20,000 yuan.

Young as he was, he had become a breeding expert and was earning an enviable high salary, making Geng Haichao an envied "gold-collar" worker. Later, he also bought a house in Qingdao and lived a comfortably well-off life.

"But I gradually felt that something was missing in life, especially when I returned to my hometown and saw that our breeding techniques there were still not so advanced, and that farmers often wasted their effort and lost money too. It made me feel very bad," Geng Haichao said.

In 2009, after careful consideration, Geng Haichao made a decision: to return home and start a business.

Unexpectedly, as soon as he announced his decision, he met strong opposition from his family. His girlfriend is from Qingdao, so she certainly did not agree. His father opposed it even more, and even said that if Geng Haichao came back, he would cut off ties with him.

Opening a breeding enterprise requires approval, and Geng Haichao's father even went to the approval staff of the relevant department, asking them to "absolutely not approve it for Geng Haichao."

But Geng Haichao's mind was made up. He returned home, rented 30 mu of land himself, and began building chicken sheds. Because his father did not agree, and because he had just returned home and did not understand many things, even the bamboo poles for building the chicken sheds were hauled over from Qingdao, Shandong.

At that time, Geng Haichao worked busily for 3 months, lost dozens of jin of weight, and spent 300,000 yuan, finally completing Ningling County's first standardized broiler chicken breeding shed.

This shed was fully automated for feeding, temperature control, and manure scraping, and was very advanced.

Establishing a cooperative to lead villagers to prosperity

After the breeding shed was built, because Geng Haichao's breeding techniques were at an advanced level even nationally, his first shed of broiler chickens was soon sent to market, and since the market was good at that time, the first shed of chickens brought in 90,000 yuan.

Seeing that Geng Haichao was doing very well, his family finally understood his decision to return home and start a business. Later, through continuous development, Geng Haichao became a major breeding household locally.

Geng Haichao's investigations found that the state-owned forest farm in Ningling County had large stretches of woods, and breeding under the forest is a kind of ecological breeding that counts as resource reuse. In addition, breeding under the forest can better control temperature, save costs, and have no impact at all on nearby residents. So Geng Haichao rented 200 mu of forest land from the state-owned forest farm and began ecological breeding under the trees.

Reporters saw that inside the woods was a large standardized breeding community. Entering the community, multiple breeding sheds came into view. Because the breeding techniques were advanced, no unpleasant odor could be smelled at all inside the breeding community.

Trucks coming to collect broiler chickens came in an endless stream. According to Geng Haichao, his standardized under-forest breeding community has a total of 11 chicken sheds and sends about 600,000 broiler chickens to market each year.

It can be said that Geng Haichao became rich, but he was not satisfied with only that. The idea of leading villagers to prosperity together had always remained in his mind. So Geng Haichao registered the Ningling County Longteng Minfa Breeding Cooperative and began recruiting members.

"As long as they join the cooperative, we not only provide technical support but also give financial assistance. For each chicken shed, the cooperative contributes 10,000 yuan to 20,000 yuan to help the farming household," Geng Haichao said.

After farmers join the cooperative, they can enjoy the "five unifications": unified supply of chicks, unified supply of feed, unified technology, unified epidemic prevention, and unified sales.

At present, the Ningling County Longteng Minfa Breeding Cooperative has more than 100 members, and each member earns more than 100,000 yuan a year.

Liang Liuqi from Chenzhuang Village, Chengjiao Township, Ningling County, is a cooperative member, and he is very grateful to Geng Haichao. In earlier years, he worked in the transport industry and never made money. Later, he joined the cooperative to do breeding, built two chicken sheds, and now earns more than 100,000 yuan every year.

"Being able to let everyone get rich along with me, to be honest, lets me sleep soundly at night," Geng Haichao said.

The "Chicken Raising King's" dream of an ecological Ningling

Ma Tonghe, head of Ningling County, said in an interview with reporters that as an agricultural county, it must do a good job in agriculture and in work related to agriculture, rural areas, and farmers. Agriculture in its original sense was mainly about growing grain, but now its share of farmers' income is getting smaller and smaller. Faced with this dilemma, some farmers need to leave the land and go out to work as industrial workers to raise their income, while others must seek returns from the fields. Under the current level of productivity and economic conditions, only by adjusting the planting structure or breeding structure of agriculture to increase farmers' income can farmers who do not leave their home area escape poverty, become prosperous, and reach a comfortably well-off life. This is the only way.

Geng Haichao's breeding cooperative is undoubtedly one path for farmers to escape poverty and become prosperous.

Geng Haichao said that, in fact, if he chose to live elsewhere, his days would be very comfortable, and he would have no worries about food or clothing. But one of his great wishes is to lead everyone to prosperity.

Geng Haichao's father, many years earlier, rented dozens of mu of land to grow persimmons, but unexpectedly not only failed, but also lost all the family's savings.

"I understand best the mentality of farmers eager to escape poverty. They are hardworking, kind, and sincere, but they suffer because they lack techniques and channels," Geng Haichao said. Being able to provide farmers with a path to prosperity is what he is most proud of.