The couple joined hands to go back to their hometown to start a business and raise Rex rabbits on the road to prosperity.

Zhang Xiaolu is checking the growth of Rex rabbits on May 23.

"Don't rob, don't rob, they all have a share." On May 23, Zhang Xiaolu and Cao Wei were busy feeding Rex rabbits at the Keyue Rabbit breeding Cooperative in Huanghaowan Village, Santai Town, Jimusar County.

Talking about the reasons for the couple's start-up, Zhang Xiaolu, 27, said: "after going out and working hard for many years, my parents are getting older. I don't think it's easy to invest outside. It's better to invest in the aquaculture industry at home and take care of my parents."

"the way of heaven rewards hard work, and every minute cultivates and gains every minute." It is not so much the family motto that Zhang Xiaolu and his wife are going to inherit, but rather the personal experience of their struggle to start a business.

Since graduating from Changji Vocational and Technical College in July 2007, Zhang Xiaolu has worked in Urumqi, Karamay, Korla and other places. In 2016, after years of hard work abroad, he came up with the idea of returning to his hometown to start a business. after various investigations and studies, he took a fancy to the good prospects and market potential of Rex rabbit breeding, so he took his wife and 3-year-old daughter back to his hometown to do Rex rabbit breeding.

His wife Cao Wei said: "at first, our parents were very opposed, but when they saw that Zhang Xiaolu was full of confidence, she slowly supported us."

In order to allay the concerns of both parents, Zhang Xiaolu took them to visit the cooperative of Luo Fei, a large Rex rabbit farmer in the neighboring township (Qingyang Lake Township), so that they could see the good prospects and market potential of Rex rabbit farming.

After that, Zhang Xiaolu went to Urumqi and other surrounding breeding bases for inspection and study. After coming back, he pooled 45000 yuan to buy back 150 small Rex rabbits from the Hengxin rabbit breeding base in Zaozhuang, Shandong Province, and officially began his entrepreneurial career.

Through trial breeding and self-study, Zhang Xiaolu gradually mastered the techniques of rex rabbit breeding, such as feed ratio, epidemic disease prevention, and baby rabbit breeding, and the scale of breeding became larger and larger, and a new rabbit house of 750 square meters was built, and a breeding cooperative was set up in March this year.

At present, Zhang Xiaolu's cooperative has five members, has a stock of 500 breeding rabbits, produces 30, 000 commercial rabbits a year, and its net profit can reach about 800000 yuan.

At the same time, Zhang Xiaolu also independently developed granular formula nutritional feed, and actively led the surrounding villagers and relatives to develop rabbit breeding.

"now to promote ecology, green, environmental protection, health, I have always been through my own alfalfa and other crops, self-made forage, insist on less feed, would rather let the Rex rabbit growth cycle longer, but also to ensure the quality of the Rex rabbit." Zhang Xiaolu said.

It is understood that in recent years, Jimusar County has issued a series of subsidy measures for strengthening agriculture and benefiting farmers, constantly increasing support for young people returning to their hometown to start their own businesses, guiding them to take root at the grass-roots level, and leading the masses of farmers and herdsmen to increase their income and become rich.

Like Zhang Xiaolu, Meng Xianjiang, who has worked abroad for many years in the same village, is also a member of the cooperative. After many door-to-door visits and in-depth understanding of the benefits of rex rabbit farming, he joined as soon as the cooperative was established this year.

Meng Xianjiang said: "Rex rabbit farming earns more money a year than working outside. Now that the policy is so good, I hope we will try our best to run the cooperative better."

At present, the Rex rabbit raised by Zhang Xiaolu is in short supply in the local market, which also gives him more ideas about the next development of the cooperative, hoping to lead more villagers to the road of increasing their income and becoming rich.

Zhang Xiaolu said: "at present, the government has a good policy, and there are subsidies for our breeding, and there is relatively strong support. We plan to carry out deep processing of rabbit meat in the second half of the year, drive the whole village to raise rabbits and engage in the rabbit industry, and turn Rex rabbit farming into a characteristic industry in Jimusar County. We will make our cooperatives bigger and stronger, and drive more people to become rich."

Support and move

* * Dr Guo Yanqin, Doctor of Management, School of Economics, University of Finance and Economics:

First of all, under the background of the serious hollowing out of many young people in cities and rural areas, Zhang Xiaolu and Cao Wei resolutely chose to return to their hometown to realize their dreams one step at a time, helping rural areas out of poverty. This kind of spirit that is not vain, impetuous and unforgettable deserves our praise and support. Secondly, although there are still great prospects for the development of meat rabbits and the possibility of getting rich is high, every breeding industry has a certain risk, so Zhang Xiaolu and Cao Wei and their husband and wife should introduce excellent rabbit breeds at the time of introduction. In particular, it is necessary to master scientific and reasonable feed formula and correct epidemic prevention measures to minimize the risk of raising rabbits.

Finally, it is suggested that Zhang Xiaolu and Cao Wei can adopt the production mode of "cooperative + scientific research + base + farmers" to expand the scale of Rex rabbit breeding, and later adopt the management mode of "breeding + processing + tourism" to develop leisure tourism projects. further enhance the additional output value of the Rex rabbit.