Raising free-range chickens under fruit trees, pecking open a door to prosperity for farmers

Recently, a reporter came to the free-range chicken ecological breeding park in Quanyi Village, Niuji Town, Qiaocheng District, Bozhou City, and saw tens of thousands of free-range chickens with bright feathers and various colors being raised among the fruit orchards.

"I saw that it was a pity for the fruit tree orchards to sit idle during the off-fruit period, so this spring I bought 3,000 free-range chick hatchlings, kept them penned at first, and released them to roam after the fruit was picked." While adding feed for the chickens, villager Zhang Baoliang told the reporter that this batch of free-range chickens was about to be marketed and that a good harvest was coming.

In recent years, Quanyi Village has become prosperous by growing fruit trees, expanding from the front and back of courtyards to large-scale field planting. From this alone, the annual per capita income has reached about 14,000 yuan.

"Increasing greenery, increasing color, and increasing fruit" let the villagers taste the benefits, and they then turned their eyes to under-forest breeding, taking the path of a composite economic industry combining fruit tree planting and under-forest breeding.

"Encouraged by Zhang Baoliang this year, I also raised more than 3,000 free-range chickens under the trees." Zhang Yan told the reporter enthusiastically that a few years ago he drove long-haul trucks elsewhere, and when he saw the booming planting and breeding industries in other places, he could not hold back, gave up going out to work, and set foot on the path of under-forest ecological breeding.

Speaking of ecological breeding, Zhang Baoliang chimed in again: "The free-range chickens raised under the trees are fed corn, wheat bran, bean dregs, and other crops at set times; at other times they catch insects and peck at tender grass among the trees. Once fully grown, they are organic healthy food." Driven by Zhang Baoliang, 3 households in the village have already begun raising free-range chickens under the trees this year, and they have now entered the market one after another.

"Raising chickens under the fruit trees means there is no need to hire people to hoe weeds, and the chicken manure is high-quality fertilizer. Every year these two things save a lot of expenses." Talking about the benefits of raising chickens in the orchard, another breeder said that with the flock of chickens in the fruit orchard, there is no need to spray pesticides, and he believes that next year the apricots, peaches, pears, and other fruits will be of even better quality.

Zhao Zhaoyang, the person in charge of agriculture in Niuji Town, said that the town will, through government guidance, policy support, funding assistance, and technical guidance, and relying on rural microcredit, establish a chicken breeding professional cooperative, so that farmers can "team up" to venture into the market, vigorously develop the promising new under-forest breeding industry project for prosperity, and enable fellow villagers to all live prosperous lives.