Jia Keqing, an old man from Ili, has made a name for himself far and wide by farming and raising livestock under the trees

The photo shows Jia Keqing adding feed for the geese

In Jiyeke Village, Kalabula Town, Xinyuan County, Ili, everyone knows Jia Keqing. The reason Jia Keqing is so well known is that he combines planting and breeding, developing an under-forest economy and achieving good economic returns.

His methods and ideas can serve as a reference for more farmers in today's rural areas who cannot find a way forward.

Arriving at Jia Keqing's orchard, more than 300 geese all have full feathers and strong bodies, and the pheasants in the cages beside them have already grown half-sized. These are more than 400 pheasants prepared for the Spring Festival market.

In 2008, taking advantage of the town government's good policy of encouraging the development of economic forests, he planted his family's 15 mu of grain ration land entirely with apple trees, and then raised chickens under the fruit treesraised geese。

Jia Keqing, 63 years old, is the first person locally to succeed in trying an under-forest economy.

"Under the treesraising geesenot only creates economic value, but also realizes an ecological cycle. By eating the grass in the forest, the geese save feed, and they also weed the fruit trees. The chicken manure can fertilize the forest. It truly kills two birds with one stone." Looking at the geese and free-range chickens foraging freely in the forest, Jia Keqing seemed very delighted.

"Raising small animals is my old trade." Jia Keqing said that he had liked raising small animals since childhood, and after being a farmer all his life, he had also accumulated a lot of experience in raising chickens and geese.

He introduced that these geese are originally Sichuan white geese. In order to adapt to the environment, they have always laid eggs themselves and hatched goslings themselves, first to save costs and second to increase the finished product rate.

The pheasants were chicks bought in 2011 from a breeder in Xinyuan Town. At that time, 50 were bought, and after raising them for more than a month, only 5 remained; all the rest died.

Jia Keqing did not become discouraged and continued looking for the answer to the problem. Through gradual exploration, he finally found the cause of the chicks' deaths.

After finding the cause, Jia Keqing had a clear idea in mind about raising pheasants. Through continuous hatching and breeding, he now markets more than 800 pheasants each year. The growth cycle of pheasants is 5 months. In this way, he supplies the tourism market in the first half of the year and the Spring Festival market in the second half. Because he has raised chickens and geese for many years, he now does not need to advertise and can sell out all his products while sitting at home.

"The chicken farm mainly focuses on pheasants, with Sichuan white geese, Ili grey geese and rural free-range chickens raised alongside them." Jia Keqing said that the choice of breeds must fully consider the market, and whatever is in demand is what should be raised.

"Scientific breeding is the key to becoming wealthy." Jia Keqing said that in order to prevent chickens from getting sick, he bought a large number of books on raising chickens and devoted himself to studying them, always paying attention to and observing the chickens' growth, and continuously exploring and summarizing chicken-raising techniques.

Because what he raises are rare pheasants, plus authentic free-range chickens, residents and restaurants in Xinyuan County all come to his door to buy them, and he has also attracted customers from Yining City to place orders.

Calculated at 200 yuan per pair for pheasants, 400 pairs bring a gross income of 80,000 yuan, and marketing more than 300 geese can earn about 30,000 yuan. Added together, this is much more worthwhile than ordinary farmers going out to work.

Talking about his future plans, Jia Keqing said that at present many villagers have also developed the idea of raising chickens under the trees, but suffer from a lack of professional skills. Next, Jia Keqing wants to use his own skills to lead his neighbors to raise chickens together and become wealthy together.