A farm located in Group 6 of Ayihe Community, Shaoqing Street, Pengshui County Photo Li Shidan
Ai Honghai wanted to set up an association specifically for poor households to help them increase their income through various formal channels. Photography by Yan Yongbin
International Online Chongqing Channel report (Li Shidan): Walking into Pengshui Ruiying Ecological Agriculture Development Co., Ltd. in Group 6 of Ayihe Community in Shaoqing Street, Pengshui County, Chongqing, I was greeted by neat and clean sheep houses, and now there are nearly 1,000 sheep here. In 2016, Ai Honghai, a major sheep farmer, earned 1 million yuan by breeding Jianyang big-eared sheep. This year, he plans to set up an association specifically for poor households, through his own resources to help them find channels to sell handicrafts and agricultural products, and to increase the income of poor households.
Before going home to start a business, Ai Honghai has been working in Panzhihua, Sichuan, and once happened to see Pengshui on TV that Pengshui is a Yudongnan Ecological Reserve that belongs to the five major functional areas of Chongqing, Ai Honghai said that when he saw this news, he immediately had the idea of going home, he said that this positioning is very accurate, and he must go home to develop ecological agriculture.
On March 3, 2013, Ai Honghai returned to his hometown Pengshui with all his belongings and began the road of raising sheep in Group 6 of Ayihe Community in Shaoqing Street.
Clean and tidy sheep house with scale Photography Li Shidan
Construction: from desolation to beginning to take shape
"When I first knew the location of the farm, because it was located on the top of the mountain, there was no shop in front of the village, there were very few households around, the land was not cultivated by anyone all year round, the weeds were almost as tall as people, and the infrastructure construction was very poor." Ai Honghai said.
Later, after Ai Honghai implemented the preliminary work of building sheep houses, connecting cables, and finding workers, he found that breeding goats needed a lot of water consumption every day, but there was no reservoir around the farm, etc., and water resources became the first problem of the farm.
Later, the surrounding residents told Ai Honghai that there is a river 15 kilometers away, which can meet the water consumption of the farm, "As soon as I heard about it, I immediately bought a car to pull water, and drove to 15 kilometers away every morning to pull water back to supply the water demand of the farm, and I had to run many times a day, which has been like this for 2 consecutive years." Ai Honghai said.
In 2015, in order to support the development of ecological agriculture, the local government helped Ai Honghai build a reservoir around the farm, which solved his important problems in industrial development. Water, electricity, sheep barns, etc. have also been implemented one by one, and in 2 years, Ai Honghai's farm has begun to take shape.
Ai Honghai introduced that this is a one-month-old young sheep, and it can be put into a larger sheep barn for a long time. Photography by Li Shidan
Bucking the tide from losing more than 3 million to achieving a 95% survival rate
Ai Honghai belonged to the action faction, and immediately went home to start a business after seeing the news, but running a farm required technology and experience, but at that time he did not have either. Ai Honghai said that more than 300 sheep died in the first year, and together with other trivial accounts, Ai Honghai directly lost more than 3 million, which made him feel that everything was in ashes. "Later, with the help of the local government, I began to learn breeding techniques, learned from experienced farmers, and constantly enriched myself, in the process of breeding, I slowly summed up a set of breeding experience, and now my sheep survival rate has reached 95%." Ai Honghai said with a smile.
But a new problem also arises, "goats are ruminants, grass, hay, leaves, etc. are its main food, but these forage resources must be limited, so goat farmers have to grow their own grass." Ai Honghai wondered, is there a kind of feed that can replace grass, hay, leaves?
In recent years, Pengshui has vigorously developed the sweet potato industry, but the overcapacity of sweet potato residue after processing has a certain impact on the environment, and winter is the time when goats are most short of forage, can potato residue be used to feed goats? And the potato residue contains the crude fiber in the feed, Ai Honghai thought.
If potato residue can be used to raise goats, it will save forage resources. With this idea, in early 2015, with the strong support of various government departments in Pengshui County, Ai Honghai invested 300,000 yuan to mix potato residue with corn, hay, etc. into granules and feed goats. Sketch the machine, contact the factory... When he saw the first goat dry knot granular forage making machine, Ai Honghai said that he was very satisfied in his heart and felt that hope was in front of him. Can the dry knot material produced by the machine feed the sheep in the end? After half a year of breeding demonstration, Ai Honghai said that the goats that eat dried and knotted material not only did not lose their fat, but also grew very fast. His feed was also patented as a result, and so far, Ai Honghai has a total of 18 patents.
In the farm's hay warehouse, the dried and knotted forage is neatly stacked. Ai Honghai said that the recipe for dry knotted grass eaten by sheep at different stages is also different. The potato residue that was originally discarded by growers has a use, and Ai Honghai has saved the cost of breeding, the most important thing is that the potato residue can completely replace the coarse fibers such as leaves, and to a certain extent, it also protects the ecological environment.
The sheep house is written on the words "improve people's livelihood and achieve common prosperity", and if the poor households come to buy breeding sheep, they will be reduced by 500 yuan Photography Li Shidan
Extension: I want to set up an association specifically for poor households
On the wall of Ai Honghai's sheep house, the author saw the words "Improve people's livelihood and achieve common prosperity" written on them. In fact, Ai Honghai is also working hard to practice, in order to contribute his own strength in poverty alleviation work, Ai Honghai promised that all poor households who build a card want to raise sheep, he can not only provide breeding sheep, each sheep will also be reduced by 500 yuan, and will also give free technical support later.
"Pengshui County is a poor county, the affairs of our hometown are our own affairs, if I can help, I will definitely dedicate my own strength." Ai Honghai said, "In the breeding I can help a certain help, but I also want to set up a special association for poor households, this association mainly plays an intermediate role, using its own resources to help poor households to take out the things that can be sold at home to find sales channels, whether it is the insoles embroidered by the elderly or the crops grown by farmers, as long as it can be sold, it can be sold through this association, and residents no longer have to worry about sales channels, hoping to help them." ”
Not only that, Ai Honghai also wants to use Pengshui's sweet potatoes to make green biscuits and use local ecological resources to increase farmers' income.
Every project of Ai Honghai is proceeding in an orderly manner, and he says that he is "tossing" every day because he believes that success is always created in "tossing".