Wang Xiufen, a farmer's wife from Liuhe Town - Finding the road to prosperity by raising foxes and raccoon dogs

    Wang Xiufen is an ordinary farmer's wife from Guiluhe Gacha, Guiluhe Town, Horqin Right Front Banner. Starting in 2002, she embarked on the road to prosperity by raising foxes and raccoon dogs. 

Ten years ago, Wang Xiufen's husband Li Yong was laid off from Horqin Wang Liquor Company. Since the family had no farmland, the couple could barely make a living doing small business. Just then, Li Yong developed a severe stomach illness and underwent gastric resection surgery. At that time, their two children were both under 5 years old. This made an already destitute family even worse off, plunging them into deep poverty and mounting debt. Wang Xiufen was not crushed by the heavy burden of life; she propped up the family with a woman's frail body. Every day she worked from dawn to dusk running the business, while also caring for her sick husband and looking after their young children. Through Wang Xiufen's hard work, within a few years she not only paid off their external debts but also began to have a little savings. Not content with the status quo, Wang Xiufen always wanted to pursue the path of breeding and farming. 

In the spring of 2002, Wang Xiufen went to visit her sister's home in Changli, Hebei, and discovered that the locals had made their fortunes by raising foxes and raccoon dogs. She thought, could I raise a few too? So she begged her sister to take her to learn from a local large-scale breeder. Her sister disagreed, saying: "It's already hard enough for you as a woman to manage a household. Stay here and rest for a few days, then go back and continue your small business." "No, the children need money as they grow up day by day, your brother-in-law needs money for medicine every day, and the little I earn is simply not enough. I came to see you, but mainly I want to find a path to prosperity." Her sister knew her stubbornness and gave in. At the breeder's home she humbly learned breeding techniques, learned how to build sheds; and she researched and analyzed the habits and characteristics of foxes and raccoon dogs, breeding profits, and market prospects. Through a week of visits and study, Wang Xiufen felt that raising foxes and raccoon dogs was indeed a good path for rural poverty alleviation and prosperity. 

As soon as Wang Xiufen returned from her sister's home, she resolved to raise foxes and raccoon dogs. She persuaded her husband, took out all the family's savings and borrowed a large portion from relatives and friends, built up the courtyard wall higher, laid a cement floor in the yard, bought wire mesh cages and asbestos tiles, and also made cement panels. In September, Wang Xiufen bought three groups of foxes and three groups of raccoon dogs from Changli, Hebei, and also bought cornmeal, fishmeal, and animal feed. Every day she worked from dawn to dusk, cleaning the sheds until they were spotless, feeding on a fixed schedule and in fixed amounts, carefully observing the droppings, and carrying out vaccinations on schedule. Under her meticulous care, she earned an income of over 20,000 yuan in the very first year, not only repaying her debts but also having some surplus. Wang Xiufen's confidence grew even stronger. In order to raise the foxes and raccoon dogs even better, she went to Changli County every year to study and exchange experience. Now, Wang Xiufen's breeding techniques are becoming more and more refined, and the loss rate is getting smaller and smaller. At present, the total number of foxes and raccoon dogs in her home has exceeded 60, with an average net profit of around 30,000 yuan. 

Wang Xiufen became wealthy, but she was not satisfied. She resolved to mobilize the sisters around her to jointly develop fox and raccoon dog breeding, break away from traditional single-crop farming, and blaze a trail to prosperity through developing specialty breeding. She taught her breeding techniques to neighboring breeders free of charge, and sold her own cubs on credit to those farmers who suffered from lack of money but had a very high interest in breeding, and also took responsibility for helping breeders sell cubs and pelts. 

Over the past few years, driven by Wang Xiufen, 15 farming households joined the fox and raccoon dog breeding team. Through breeding foxes and raccoon dogs, some of these households recouped their investment in the same year and saw profits the next year, increasing their annual income by 5,000 to 20,000 yuan, and their living conditions improved markedly. Because raising foxes and raccoon dogs has low costs, high profits, is simple to breed, and does not compete with the farming season, fox and raccoon dog breeding is gradually becoming a major industry for enriching the people and farmers of Guiluhe Town.