Wang Lirong became a leader by getting rich raising chickens

    Wang Lirong of Zhugang Village, Xiaqiao Town, Yingshang County, became wealthy by raising chickens. Although she only had a junior high school education, through continuous learning she mastered chicken-raising techniques, developing from household rearing to intelligent breeding, automated feeding operations, and modern scientific management. From a household operation with only a few hundred yuan in capital, she gradually expanded to a modern chicken farm with a scale of several hundred thousand yuan. Since 2000, she has successively received such honorable titles as national and provincial advanced woman expert in the "Double Learn, Double Compare" campaign, Anhui Province Model Worker, and one of Fuyang City's "Top Ten Outstanding Women."

In 1992, Wang Lirong married into Zhugang Village. Seeing that the whole family could only make a living after a year of hard work, she felt very anxious. As reform and opening up deepened, the fact that some people gradually became prosperous through household side businesses educated her. In 1994, she went to several large chicken-raising households in her village to learn chicken-raising techniques. Ignoring her parents-in-law's opposition, she sold her dowry and also borrowed 300 yuan in loans to buy 100 local native chickens. Due to a lack of rearing techniques and management experience, the chickens she raised became sick, and in less than two months few of the chicks were left, but this did not discourage her.

Afterward, Wang Lirong continued raising chickens. After doing so for three or four consecutive years, the returns were very small. The lessons of failure made her clear-headed, and she realized that she had to choose fine breeds and master advanced chicken-raising techniques. So she went many times to Shanghai, Jiangsu, Nanjing, Lu'an and other places for on-the-spot investigations and study, and also bought and subscribed to relevant books and magazines to guide actual operations. Through diligent study, she learned breeding, disease prevention and control, management and other techniques. In 1997 she purchased 10,000 American AA broiler chicks; after raising and selling them she made a net profit of 10,000 yuan, and with 4,000 West German Roman laying hens she made a profit of 50,000 yuan that year. In 1998 the number raised reached 20,000, with a net profit of 75,000 yuan, which not only paid off her debts but also left her with a profit.

Wang Lirong succeeded. Under her influence, many farming households in Zhugang Village and nearby villages became specialized chicken-raising households. Seeing that they bought chicks from other places at high prices and with inconvenience, Wang Lirong discussed it with her husband and then went elsewhere to buy 2,000 sets of American AA parent-stock broiler breeders and 8 fully automatic incubators. Adopting full-valence formulas and a modern scientific management model, that year she sold 300,000 broiler chicks. The chicks captured the market of her own town and neighboring townships, and the number of local specialized chicken-raising households reached over a hundred. Finished chickens were sold as far away as Hefei, Huainan, Lu'an, Fuyang and other places. At present, Lirong Chicken Farm has 18,000 laying hens in stock and 6,000 young chickens, and can sell 150,000 kg of fresh eggs to the market each year, sell about 3,000 kg of broilers, and make an annual profit of 200,000 yuan.

Ordinarily, she never holds back her chicken-raising techniques. She provides follow-up services to farming households that buy chicks, voluntarily provides free chicks to poor households, and has held many free technical training classes. Now chicken raising in the whole village has begun to take shape, with 37 households raising more than 500 chickens, of which 27 households raise more than 10,000.