Zheng Yifeng: raising chickens in Tea Garden, a win-win Choice

As soon as you enter the Gaomeishan Family Farm in Qikou Village, Luxi Township, Qimen County, you can see lush tea trees and thousands of native chickens looking for food leisurely in the tea garden. "these chickens live on Cordyceps sinensis in the tea garden, and the eggs are delicious. The tea garden does not need medicine to control insects and weeds, and chicken dung can also nourish the growth of tea trees. Tea is also organic tea with a good price. " Farmer Zheng Yifeng said.

Zheng Yifeng raised chickens in tea garden, which was founded in 1998. In August 2013, with the help of policy support and agricultural technicians, Zheng Yifeng registered Gaomeishan family farm as the first family farm in Qimen County. Raising chickens in tea garden is a three-dimensional eco-agricultural model. The establishment of tea garden ecology of "replacing fertilizer with feed", "preventing insects with chickens" and "weeding with chickens" can not only increase the income of raising chickens, but also save cost and increase efficiency compared with the tea garden with single planting of tea. According to Zheng Yifeng's calculation, each mu of tea garden can save labor, feed, fertilizer and pesticide costs totaling more than 400 yuan. Because the tea garden does not apply pesticides and chemical fertilizers, the quality of tea is improved, and the benefit per mu is increased by more than 500 yuan. The net income of his tea garden chicken breeding model is about 4000 yuan per mu of tea garden, which is several times that of the local ordinary tea garden, and the economic benefit is considerable. At present, Gaomeishan family farm has 113 mu of mature tea trees, 5 batches of native chickens are raised in the tea garden, and a total of 22000 native chickens are produced every year, and the farm is on the list of demonstration family farms in Anhui Province.

Driven by Zheng Yifeng's demonstration of Gaomeishan family farm, the eco-agricultural model of raising chickens in tea gardens has been rapidly promoted. Many villagers watch and learn, and he always preaches his own farming experience unreservedly, leading everyone to get rich together. In 2011, he established a professional cooperative for native chicken farming in Qikou, Luxi Township, which helped lead a group of members to embark on the road of breeding and becoming rich.