The Road to Wealth of "the most Beautiful Youth" in Kangxian County

Native chicken "Taiping chicken", because of its strong leg bones and larger physique than ordinary chickens, was raised and retained.

Erping Village, Yangba Town, Kangxian County is located at the junction of Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces, where the mountains are high and the forest is dense, and the transportation is inconvenient. Up to now, some villagers still live below the poverty line. As the land is thin and sparsely populated and the residence is scattered, large livestock such as cattle and sheep are often harmed by black bears and wild boars, and few families are raised. There is only one local native chicken, Taiping Chicken, which is raised and retained because of its strong legs and larger physique than ordinary chickens. However, due to slow growth, "Taiping Chicken" has been gradually replaced by meat chicken, and even on the verge of extinction. In recent years, this kind of local chicken has regained its population and become a new hope for local villagers to shake off poverty and become rich.

All this is inseparable from the work of Xu Weiqin, a villager of Erping Village. Like many rural girls out of school, Xu Weiqin had no job for a while after graduating from Longnan Agricultural School in 2004, and there are only two ways out: one is to continue to review and take the civil service examination; the other is to go out to work to earn money and get married. In the following years, Xu Weiqin worked as a substitute teacher, worked in the electronics market in Shenzhen, and changed several jobs.

Once, when she went to dinner with her working friends, the chicken nuggets, which were fattened with hormones but were nutritious and unpleasant in taste, reminded Xu Weiqin of the Taiping chicken in her hometown.

Where there is thought, there is action. In 2010, with the help of the county government, Xu Weiqin coordinated the discount loans for raising Taiping chickens, mobilized four villagers in the village to buy shares, raised 120000 yuan, and set up a professional cooperative for Taiping chicken farming in Yangba Town not far from the village. The cooperative found 25 "Taiping chickens" of relatively pure breeds from the village and began to breed and hatch. At the end of that year, 1500 "Taiping chickens" were listed, with an income of 15000 yuan. Seeing that raising "Taiping Chicken" can make money, Xu Weiqin provided breeder chickens to farmers in this village and the surrounding villages of Kejiahe, Tianba, and Duba, allowing them to breed, breed, and sign purchase and sales contracts. Under her leadership, more than 100 villagers, including 45 poor households, have joined the cooperative and are expected to store 100000 chickens by the end of this year.

Because of his contribution in leading villagers out of poverty and becoming rich, Xu Weiqin was named as the "leader of youth getting rich" in Kangxian County and "the most beautiful youth in Kangxian County" by the Communist Youth League of Kangxian County.

Xu Weiqin told reporters that professional cooperatives require villagers to raise chickens in the original way to ensure the quality of Taiping chickens. As one of the three excellent local poultry breeds in Gansu Province, Taiping Chicken is sold to Chengdu and other places because of its tender bones and crispy skin, and its price is much higher than that of ordinary broilers. Recently, she also began to try to use the e-commerce platform to expand the market and make Taiping Chicken reach more consumers.

As the market expands, Xu Weiqin hopes to have more policy support to help cooperatives expand their scale and further open up the market. "there are high risks and uncertainties in the aquaculture industry, financing is difficult and expensive, and banks are generally reluctant to lend," she said. "it is hoped that more poverty alleviation funds will be tilted towards the aquaculture industry."