Chicken breeder helps put taste of success on the menu

Many travelers visit Hainan province not only for its beautiful scenery and pleasant climate, but also to taste the food, especially Wenchang chicken.

The dish, which takes its name from Wenchang city, its birthplace, is usually served at parties and other important events.

The secret to its success is ensuring that the chickens are bred properly, and Lin Peng, 49, is considered an expert in this field.

Lin, who has bred the birds for more than 20 years, said although they are fleshy, they have a thin skin because they are raised in a tropical environment and fed nutritious food, including seeds and worms from rubber trees.

After breeding the birds on his own, Lin began helping poor families in Wenchang in 2016, lifting them out of poverty and expanding chicken farming.

Pan Xiansan is among the villagers whose lives have been changed. Several years ago, his family only earned a small income from growing crops, so his son and daughter-in-law went to Guangdong province to make more money. However, lacking technical skills, the couple still found it hard to support the seven-member family.

In 2015, the Gongpo township government, which is responsible for Pan's village, suggested that to reduce the economic burden on his family, he should learn from Lin, manager of the Hainan Chuanwei Wenchang Chicken Industry Co, how to raise the chickens.

"I never thought this would be the turning point of my life," Pan said.

The company, which provides chicken coops and feed, also offers free technical advice to the villagers.

Some of them initially lacked confidence, as they had no experience of breeding chickens, so Lin's company offered a monthly subsidy of 750 yuan ($107) to impoverished households for the first year.

Thanks to such support, Pan's earnings rose from 98,000 yuan in 2016 to 157,000 yuan last year.

With Lin's support, another 100 households in Wenchang have been lifted out of poverty. After seeing families earning significantly more, he started to share his management knowledge with villagers, teaching them to apply intelligent breeding systems.

"I'm planning to use my success in breeding chickens to help poor people elsewhere in the province. I also want to contribute to the island's economy in other ways, in the hope that more tourists will come to taste our delicious Wenchang chicken," Lin added.