A team of college students raising chickens at the southern foot of Daba Mountain
Yuan Sheng
In Hejiawan Village, Shitang Town, Wanyuan City, Sichuan Province, there is an active chicken entrepreneurship team composed of 7 college students. They raised millions of black chickens with red glasses and sold them all over the country, driving villagers to increase their income and contribute to rural revitalization.
The reporter asked the college students of the chicken entrepreneurship team: "The chickens still wear glasses?" (Yuan Ren screenshot)
The news broadcast by Sichuan Satellite TV in the column "Young People in Our Village" made the author's heart surge and he couldn't calm down for a long time.
In April 1978, with the approval of the State Council, seven communes were carved out of Wanyuan County and a county-level administrative district was established, which was named Baisha Industrial and Agricultural Demonstration Zone of Sichuan Province.
In 1979, the Baisha Industrial and Agricultural Demonstration Zone was renamed Baisha Industrial and Agricultural Zone, becoming one of the three county-level administrative regions in mainland China with the title of "Industrial and Agricultural District".
Baisha Industrial and Agricultural Area is located at the southern foot of Daba Mountain, with heavy mountains and ravines, and the highest peak, Calyx Mountain, is 2380.4 meters above sea level. The whole district covers an area of 500 square kilometers, with jurisdiction over 7 townships and towns of Calyx, Batai, Baisha, Caojia, Shitang, paddy field and Shaba, with a population of 105,000 people, and the district government is located in Baisha Town. In the early 30s of the 20th century, Xu Xiangqian, Li Xiannian, Xu Shiyou, and others led the Red Fourth Front Army to carry out an arduous struggle here.
In June 1991, the author was sent by the Organization Department of the Sichuan Provincial Party Committee to Baisha Industrial and Agricultural District as deputy head of the district. During the two-year temporary training, I was in charge of industry, transportation, new product development, etc. At that time, the Baisha industrial and agricultural area was listed as "the old and the young, the marginal and the poor". Due to financial difficulties, the salaries of district officials and school teachers are often delayed. A large number of young people in rural areas have left their hometowns to work, and most of the residents in the villages are middle-aged and elderly people and "small children".
In November 1993, Wanyuan County and Baisha Industrial and Agricultural District were abolished and merged to form Wanyuan City (county level), which was managed by Dachuan District. The original Baisha Industrial and Agricultural Area was changed to Baisha Town.
In June 1996, the Dachuan area was revoked and renamed Dazhou City, which was managed by Wanyuan City.
Gazetteer of Baisha Industrial and Agricultural Area in Sichuan Province (Photo courtesy of Wang Xiaochu)
In recent years, in the vast land at the southern foot of Daba Mountain, a remarkable change has quietly emerged. The people who stayed in the village are getting younger and younger, and more and more young people are returning to their hometowns to start businesses. These "new farmers" flexibly apply their new production organization methods, new business formats and new technologies to the agricultural field, which has effectively promoted the reform and innovation of agricultural production and the transformation and upgrading of the agricultural industry.
Although the former Hejiawan Village, Shitang Township, Baisha Industrial and Agricultural District has long been renamed Hejiawan Village, Shitang Town, Wanyuan City, the author is still deeply moved by the typical deeds of the college students' chicken raising entrepreneurial team, and is fascinated by the news broadcast by Sichuan Satellite TV.
Hejiawan Village is about 30 kilometers away from Wanyuan City, adjacent to Waziping Village, Shanlinwan Village, Liushu Village, Qianjin Community and Shuanghe Village in this town, and is closely connected with Gaofengguan Village in Jiuyuan Town on a steep slope.
In August 2021, Hejiawan Village was announced by the Office of the Rural Work Leading Group of the Sichuan Provincial Party Committee as a key village for rural revitalization.
In February 2023, Hejiawan Village was named as an outstanding village for rural revitalization in Sichuan Province.
Hejiawan Village, Shitang Town, Wanyuan City (Kong Haijing screenshot)
Near Hejiawan Village, there are tourist attractions such as Wanyuan Red Army Park, Batai Mountain Scenic Area, Longtan River Scenic Area, Tea Salt Ancient Road, Guanyin Gorge, Ziyunping Zhiming Lingyuan Rock Carvings; There are local specialties such as Wanyuan selenium-rich tea, Dazhou olive oil, Wanyuan old courtyard black chicken, bee bucket honey, Dazhou crispy plum, etc.; There are folk cultures such as Bashan masonry horns and Yangge.
Batai Mountain Scenic Area is a national natural heritage site, a national geological park, and a national 4A-level tourist attraction. Its main peak, Xinbatai Peak, is 2272.3 meters above sea level. In addition to the main peak, there are also the old Batai Peak, Duxiu Peak, Casting Sword Peak and so on. The scenic spot is famous for the wonders of "sunrise, Buddha light, sea of clouds, cloud waterfall, cliffs, cliffs, single peaks, stone buds" and other wonders, and is known as "the second peak of Bashan", "Emei in eastern Sichuan" and "the place to welcome the first ray of sunshine in Sichuan". Among them, the solitary peak of the Duxiu Peak stands upright, the peak end is sharpened, like a pen like a tower, the clouds and mist are entangled, it is hidden from time to time, it is very mysterious.
Duxiu Peak of Batai Mountain (photo courtesy of Mao Yongju)
In January 2024, the "2024 Tianfu Granary Boutique National Promotion" event entered the first stop in Shanghai. Among them, a bowl of thick "black chicken soup in the old courtyard" left a deep impression on the guests. Behind this delicious flavor is the chicken entrepreneurship team composed of 7 college students at the southern foot of Daba Mountain.
Wanyuan City is one of the three major selenium-rich belts in mainland China and the only natural selenium-rich area in Sichuan Province. The unique ecological environment has given birth to the black chicken of the old courtyard, which is a product protected by China's national geographical indications. According to the records of Wanyuan County, the local villagers have been feeding the black chickens in the old courtyard for more than 160 years.
The black chickens raised by 7 college students belong to the excellent local breed of meat and eggs. "The body is like a black phoenix, the egg is like a colorful stone", the meat is delicate and fragrant, the taste is delicious, and the selenium content is 125% higher than that of ordinary chickens, and it is praised as "rare in the world, unique to China, and unique to Wanyuan" by experts of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The green-shelled eggs produced by the black chickens in the old courtyard are rich in a variety of trace elements such as high selenium, high zinc, high lecithin and cerebral phospholipids, and have the reputation of "life eggs".
In 1982, the old yard black chicken was listed as an excellent breed in Sichuan Province.
In 1983, it was listed as a national local excellent variety.
In 2003, it was included in the "Atlas of Poultry Landrace Resources in China". It has obtained the certification and protection of geographical indications of agricultural products from the Ministry of Agriculture, and the certificate of origin trademark of "Wanyuan Old Courtyard Black Chicken (Egg)" has been approved and registered by the Trademark Office of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce.
In December 2006, it passed the national "organic product" quality certification.
7 college students' chicken entrepreneurship team cultivated black eggs in the old courtyard (Yuan Jian screenshot)
The southern foot of Daba Mountain is steep, the mountains are continuous, and the mountains are high and the slopes are long. A long and narrow mountain is formed between Hejiawan Village, Shitang Town, Wanyuan City, and Gaofengguan Village, Jiuyuan Town, which is called "Bailipo" by the locals.
In 1983, Liu Xiaogang, the leader of the entrepreneurial team of seven college students' chicken raising, was "born in Shitang" and "grew up in the old courtyard".
In 2002, after graduating from Sichuan University of Arts and Sciences, Liu Xiaogang returned to Gaofengguan Village, Jiuyuan Town, to become a primary school teacher.
Sichuan University of Arts and Sciences (courtesy of Wang Lan)
In 2007, Liu Xiaogang focused on the black chicken in the old courtyard. After many investigations, he made up his mind to quit his job as a teacher, took his only 10,000 yuan of savings, and ran into Bailipo to build a chicken coop without telling his parents, and began to raise black chickens in the old yard. His wife Yang Dongju resolutely quit her job and came to her husband's side, and the two slept in the depths of the mountains, raising chickens and starting a business.
At the end of 2008, Liu Xiaogang earned 180,000 yuan by selling black chickens in the old courtyard.
In December 2010, Liu Xiaogang and local villagers established Wanyuan Bailipo Old Courtyard Black Chicken Breeding Professional Cooperative, leading the villagers to increase their income and get rich. The cooperative has 157 shareholders, and the legal representative is Liu Xiaogang.
In 2016, the breeding stock of the Bailipo Old Courtyard Black Chicken Breeding Professional Cooperative reached 100,000. Liu Xiaogang was elected as a deputy to the Fourth People's Congress of Dazhou City.
In 2019, the Sichuan Provincial Party Committee issued Document No. 1. Liu Xiaogang keenly noticed the expression in the document "taking the modern agricultural park as the starting point and polishing the golden signboard of a major agricultural province", and had a bolder idea in his heart. He plans to use 10 years to build the Bailipo Black Chicken Breeding Base into a cultural and tourism industrial park integrating modern agricultural production, sightseeing and leisure.
In December 2020, Liu Xiaogang was awarded the 8th Sichuan Provincial Model Worker.
In June 2021, Liu Xiaogang was awarded the title of "Outstanding Communist Party Member of Sichuan Province" by the Sichuan Provincial Party Committee.
In 2022, the breeding stock of the Bailipo Old Courtyard Black Chicken Breeding Professional Cooperative will reach 200,000.
With the continuous expansion of the scale of black chicken breeding in Bailipo, Liu Xiaogang has successively established an entrepreneurial team composed of 27 "post-80s" and "post-90s" college students. Among them, there are 7 backbone members.
Some of the 7 backbone members of the college student chicken entrepreneurship team majored in civil engineering, some majored in mathematics, some majored in software development, some majored in environmental engineering, and some majored in marketing. Although none of them are majoring in breeding, they all have their own "housekeeping skills". Liu Xiaogang has read more than 100 related books and studied breeding technology through the Internet. This group of "post-80s" and "post-90s" were nailed into the reckless mountains of Wanyuan City like nails, allowing the "golden phoenix" of the black chicken in the old courtyard of Bailipo to gradually fly to the whole country from a corner of northeast Sichuan.
Liu Xiaogang, chairman of the Black Chicken Breeding Professional Cooperative in Bailipo Old Courtyard, Wanyuan City, is observing the hatching of eggs (Xu Shuqin screenshot)
After experiencing unimaginable difficulties such as chicken plague, market sales setbacks, and huge debts, Liu Xiaogang finally built a green production line for breeding black chickens in the old yard on Bailipo, and production and operation were on the right track.
Liu Xiaogang has never forgotten the surrounding villagers, recruited more than 2,000 villagers to work on the spot through a variety of ways, distributed more than 100,000 chicken seedlings to the villagers free of charge, provided free technical guidance, and unified guaranteed recycling. The chicks distributed every year are high-quality varieties with disease resistance and strong adaptability, which are convenient to raise and have a high survival rate. By raising black chickens in the old courtyard, the villagers developed the courtyard economy and broadened the way to get rich.
Yuan Ping, a villager from Hejiawan Village, Shitang Township, said: "This year, I was given more than a dozen chicks, as well as a bag of feed and medicine. And the chicks are all vaccinated, and it's good to feed them back!"
Chen Chaokuan, a villager in Hejiawan Village, Shitang Township, said: "We are old and no longer work outside. This enterprise drives our people to raise chickens, and we earn 40,000 or 50,000 yuan every year!"
Today, Liu Xiaogang has stumbled through nearly 17 years of chicken entrepreneurship, expanding the farm to 12,000 acres, the scale of black chicken breeding in the old courtyard of Bailipo has developed to 1 million, and the annual sales of the enterprise have exceeded 20 million yuan.
Liu Xiaogang (first from left), chairman of the Black Chicken Breeding Professional Cooperative in Bailipo Old Courtyard, Wanyuan City, and some of his young partners (Photo source: Sohu.com)
The black chickens raised by college students are good at flying and fighting, and they are extremely wild, and they must wait until the night when the chickens are sleeping to catch them.
College students' chicken entrepreneurship team catches chickens at night (Xu Wenhe screenshot)
In order to ensure the safety and smoothness of the black chickens on the way to other places, college students put the black chickens into plastic baskets and carried them onto trucks.
The entrepreneurial team of college students raising chickens loaded the black chickens caught at night onto the truck (Gao Xiangyun screenshot)
On the eve of the arrival of the Year of the Dragon, in the mountains and forests of Hejiawan Village, Shitang Town, Wanyuan City, a tense chicken catching operation is underway. A "post-90s" girl has a keen eye and locks on to the target to capture the black chicken. Despite the successive throws and wrestling, the smile on her face was not taken away. She is the well-known doctor of chicken raising, and Hou Zhongjie, general manager of the black chicken breeding professional cooperative in Bailipo Old Courtyard of Wanyuan City.
Among the seven backbone members of the college students' chicken entrepreneurship team, Hou Zhongjie has the highest education and is a doctoral student in the Department of Civil Engineering of Chongqing University. Two years ago, she joined the Bailipo Old Yard Black Chicken Breeding Professional Cooperative, from carrying a 100-kilogram feed bag to raising chickens at more than 5 o'clock in the morning, it took only more than 3 months to be deeply involved in all aspects of the old yard black chicken breeding.
A corner of Chongqing University (courtesy of Wang Xin)
Before the Spring Festival, orders increased sharply, and Hou Zhongjie, who was the general manager of the Black Chicken Breeding Professional Cooperative in Bailipo Old Courtyard, had to personally do such a small thing as "catching chickens". Although she was busy, her heart was full of warm relief and joy.
Hou Zhongjie said when he carried the black chicken he had just caught: "It's really hard to catch! We usually catch it at night, but today because a customer wants 10 live chickens, I will temporarily come up and catch a few for him!"
We asked Hou Zhongjie curiously: "Why does a doctor who studied civil engineering raise chickens?"
Hou Zhongjie replied affectionately: "This is my hometown!"
Hou Zhongjie, a doctoral student at Chongqing University and general manager of the Black Chicken Breeding Professional Cooperative in Bailipo Old Courtyard of Wanyuan City, was interviewed by reporters (Zhang Ling screenshot)
Hou Zhongjie said that their seven college student chicken entrepreneurship teams were formed six years ago. Although she has the highest education in the team members, she has the least qualifications, and she has only been raising chickens for two years, and the other members have been raising chickens for the longest time for 17 years.
Hou Zhongjie pointed to a tall young man and said, "That's our chicken commander Chen Dacang, who is one of our seven college student team members. As soon as he blows the whistle, the chickens here will have to listen to him!"
"Chicken Commander Chen Dacang" is named Chen Tianqu, who is the head of the production department of the Black Chicken Breeding Professional Cooperative in the old courtyard, and has been raising chickens for more than 10 years. In the minds of his teammates, he is a sports student who is trying to pull out the mountains and cover the world. In the eyes of the black chicken, he is not only a "food and clothing parent", but also a "teaching director".
We asked Chen Tianqu curiously, "What is the red thing on the chicken's head?"
Chen Tianqu replied: "That's chicken glasses." ”
Jiang Huan then asked, "The chicken still wears glasses?"
Chen Tianqu explained: "With this chicken glasses, two chickens can't see each other, and they won't fight." Otherwise, the feathers on the chicken's head will be gone, and it will become bare!"
We will smile heartily: "I see, for the sake of appearance!"
Chen Tianqu, head of the production department of the black chicken breeding professional cooperative in the old courtyard of Wanyuan City, introduced the relevant situation to reporters (Kong Yanming screenshot)
College students raise chickens and have their own ideas and ways of raising chickens. The black chickens in the Bailipo Old Courtyard Black Chicken Breeding Professional Cooperative eat the grains and Chinese medicinal materials planted by the cooperative themselves, drink the clear and sweet mountain spring water, and run freely in the mountains and forests every day.
The black chicken in the old courtyard running freely in the forest of Bailipo Mountain (Xu Naiang screenshot)
However, the best of the black chickens in the old courtyard of Bailipo was not raised, but was carefully placed in a special place by the entrepreneurial team of college students.
In 2023, the Bailipo Old Yard Black Chicken Breeding Professional Cooperative will build and put into use a fully automated breeding chicken house covering an area of 1,200 square meters. Currently, it houses more than 27,000 breeding chickens. This fully automated breeder house is regarded by college students as the core "chip project" in the entire farm.
Wanyuan Bailipo Old Courtyard Black Chicken Breeding Professional Cooperative Fully automated breeder house (Yan Qi screenshot)
The black chickens raised in the fully automated breeding chicken coop of the Bailipo Old Yard Black Chicken Breeding Professional Cooperative are the best breeding chickens in the entire breeding base. Its comb, demoiselle and sickle feathers are black and emerald green with red trim and lustre. In particular, the male breeder among them, tall in size, with a flower crown on his head, quite like a fighting, with his head held high, aggressive by nature, "black black feathers with green light", is the best of the best "Prince Charming".
The breeder raised by the black chicken breeding professional cooperative in the old courtyard of Bailipo in Wanyuan City (Wang Xuedan screenshot)
Hou Zhongjie, general manager of the Bailipo Old Courtyard Black Chicken Breeding Professional Cooperative, said: "Because one of our seven college students graduated from the University of Electronic Science and Technology, we have developed a set of software systems by ourselves. ”
Now, as long as you open the mobile applet, enter the cloud platform, and move your fingers, you can easily realize remote feeding and feeding. It can also monitor in real time and view the movement track of the black chicken.
Hou Zhongjie said: "In Chengdu and Beijing, you can also adopt a chicken for us. Feeding it from a young age to adulthood is so much fun!"
Mobile phone real-time monitoring and adoption system developed by college students of Bailipo Old Courtyard Black Chicken Breeding Professional Cooperative in Wanyuan City (Zeng Cheng screenshot)
To modernize chicken farming, sales must keep up with new markets. Since 2020, the entrepreneurial team of college students raising chickens has opened accounts on various short video platforms and filmed interesting videos, attracting hundreds of thousands of fans. At the same time, the entrepreneurial team of college students raising chickens also actively cultivates local rural anchors to bring goods through live broadcasts, and has achieved impressive results of 30% growth in C-end customers in 2023 alone.
Yang Dongju, head of the sales department of the black chicken breeding professional cooperative in Bailipo Old Courtyard, Wanyuan City, introduced the product shipment to reporters (Yuan Ying screenshot)
On Chinese New Year's Eve, Liu Xiaogang summoned the key members of the college students' chicken entrepreneurship team to take 2 hours to have a steaming reunion dinner together.
Liu Xiaogang raised his glass and announced to his friends: "In 2024, I am confident that I will lead the team to turn our black chickens in the old courtyard of Wanyuan Bailipo into hairy crabs in Yangcheng Lake!
……
Wanyuan Bailipo Old Courtyard Black Chicken Breeding Professional Cooperative College Student Chicken Entrepreneurship Team Welcomes Jiachen Year of the Dragon (Xu Bo screenshot)
Chairman Mao once said to young people: "The world is yours and ours, but in the final analysis, it is yours." You young people are full of vigor and prosperity, like the sun at eight or nine o'clock in the morning, and hope is pinned on you!"
After reading the news report of Sichuan Satellite TV, the author was full of emotion, and couldn't help but organize the stories told in the TV program into words, dedicated to readers, and also to the young people who are striving in the Daba Mountain area. I sincerely wish that the "young people of our village" will continue to create shining achievements on the new journey of building Chinese-style modernization!
Written on April 15, 2024
Resources:
1. "Wanyuan Bailipo Old Courtyard Black Chicken Breeding Professional Cooperative", Aiqicha, February 29, 2024.
2. "Sichuan News Network丨New Year Grassroots (13) Seven College Students' Black Roosters "Out of the Circle"", Sichuan Observation, February 17, 2024.
3. Ma Fahai and Pei Yusong, ""Bigger" Old Courtyard Black Chicken, a "Post-80s" and "Post-90s" Team "Nailed" into the Depths of Bashan", Jintai Information, January 12, 2024.
4. "Fieldwork|60 Years of Ups and Downs, How Can the Black Chicken in the Old Courtyard "Fly Out" of Daba Mountain?", Sichuan Rural Daily, December 7, 2023.
5. "Mangen Old Temple", Kawami Shuangji, December 7, 2023.
6. ""Bigger" Black Chicken in the Old Courtyard, This Team "Nailed" into the Depths of Bashan", China Agricultural Science News Network, November 30, 2023.
7. Wanyuan City Local Chronicles Office, "Wanyuan City", Sichuan Provincial Information Network, November 28, 2023.
8. Wanyuan Municipal Finance Bureau, ""Black Phoenix" Drives the Road to Prosperity Wanyuan Municipal Finance Bureau Comes to Help "Fly"", Sichuan Finance, August 22, 2023.
9. Wu Zhiya, "Dazhou Wanyuan: "Black Chicken Brother" Distributes Chicken Seedlings for Free, Villagers Get Rich and Increase Income with "Chickens" to Take Advantage of", Jintai Information, July 27, 2023.
10. "Integrity Lookout|Dazhou: Mountains and Rivers Flow Cui Painting "Dajuan"", Sichuan and Chongqing local news, June 15, 2022.
11. Qing Zhaoling, "Liu Xiaogang: Leader of Industrial Prosperity, Rural Revitalization Transmission of the People", Wanyuan News Network, February 13, 2022.
12. "Father-in-law Thinks He "Has No Money to Buy a House", Kneels and Begs Him to Leave His Daughter, He Resigns and Escapes Into the Mountains to Raise Chickens", Western Civilization Broadcast, January 8, 2022.
13. Chen Benqiang, "Liu Xiaogang's "Chicken Land" Adventures", official website of Wanyuan Municipal People's Government, June 13, 2018.
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Please indicate: "Source: Fang Zhi Sichuan"
Source: Sichuan Provincial Office of Local Chronicles
Text/Photo: Yuan Zheng (Born in Beijing in 1955, his ancestral home is Langzhong, Sichuan, and he now lives in Chengdu. Before his retirement, he was a deputy inspector of the Sichuan Provincial People's Procuratorate)