Ju Chengmian Carves Out a Road to Prosperity by Raising Chickens
"If others can get rich raising chickens, so can we!" Ju Chengmian, a villager from Group 3 of Bigong Village, Wuquan Town, Yangling District, gritted her teeth and carved out a road to prosperity through battery-cage chicken farming, and went on to lead the people around her to raise chickens on a large scale. At present, the village has more than 100,000 chickens, making it a well-known specialized chicken-farming village near and far.
Ju Chengmian is 43 years old this year and has a junior high school education. Ten years ago, her family was penniless. Unwilling to accept poverty, she taught herself scientific and technical knowledge and pioneered a new path to prosperity through chicken farming. In 1999, she was named a "Woman Capable of Both Learning and Competing" by the Provincial Women's Federation.
In 1991, in order to change her family's impoverished situation, Ju Chengmian discovered that raising chickens and selling both the chickens and the eggs brought in double income, so she borrowed 3,000 yuan from here and there and bought 1,000 chicks. Because she had no skills, in less than a month more than 800 of the chicks died, which dealt her a heavy blow. Her husband advised her, "Stop fooling around. A person's fate is decided by heaven. Just live this hard life steadily!" Ju Chengmian silently shed tears, squatting by the chicken coop staring blankly at the more than 100 chickens left. "I absolutely cannot let them die too." She bought relevant books and learned as she went. When she came across something she did not understand, she would walk more than 30 li to ask a large-scale chicken farmer in Fufeng for advice, or go to Yangling to consult experts. Where there is a will, there is a way, and these 100 or so chickens survived.
In 1992, she took out a loan of 2,000 yuan and bought another 1,000 chickens, studying and delving into battery-cage raising techniques, and that year her net income reached 8,000 yuan. Once she started, she could not stop. Using the snowball method, she continuously expanded her scale and improved her techniques, carving out a road to prosperity through battery-cage chicken farming. In 1999, she invested 30,000 yuan to build a breeding community. Now she has more than 9,000 battery-cage chickens and fixed assets of more than 150,000 yuan.
Ju Chengmian did not forget her fellow villagers after getting rich. When the villagers saw that she had prospered by raising chickens, they too began raising chickens one after another. "I cannot let my fellow villagers suffer the hardships I suffered." She went into the homes of chicken-raising households to teach disease prevention and feeding techniques, and never charged a fee. Li Xiurun and Xin Xuehong really could not get the hang of raising young chicks in battery cages, so Ju Chengmian raised the chicks for them, for as long as four years. When she learned that Han Li, a household in difficulty, wanted to raise chickens but had no funds, she advanced her 4,000 yuan and helped raise chicks on her behalf. Under Ju Chengmian's leadership and help, more than 110 households in Bigong Village have taken up battery-cage chicken farming, and 20 households raise 1,000 chickens or more.
The battery-cage chicken industry in Bigong Village has taken shape on a large scale. To make it convenient for her fellow villagers to buy feed, Ju Chengmian set up a feed sales agency at her home and established contacts with merchants from Gansu, Ningxia and elsewhere to help everyone sell fresh eggs. The villagers said happily, "Being able to live such a good life today is all because Chengmian led the way!"