Fujian partnership boosts chicken breeding in Ningxia

A targeted industrial assistance program under the Fujian-Ningxia partnership is helping transform a local poultry breed into a reliable source of income for villagers in Pengyang county, Ningxia Hui autonomous region, helping lift small-scale farming into a standardized and market-oriented operation.

The Chaona chicken, a rare breed native to Liupan Mountain, is known for its low-fat, high-protein meat and richly flavored eggs. Its breeding had long been constrained by small-scale production, low standardization, and limited industrial chains, preventing local farmers from translating the resource into steady earnings.

That began to change in 2024, when Xiamen, Fujian province, allocated 12.9 million yuan ($1.9 million) under the Fujian-Ningxia cooperation framework to support chicken-raising infrastructure. The county responded by repurposing idle school buildings and old village offices into 12 standardized farms, each capable of raising 10,000 chickens.

Zhang Yuguo, deputy Party branch secretary of a village in Pengyang's Mengyuan township, said that prior to the funding, they had raised 5,000 free-range chickens in an out-of-commission school building. "With the new funding, we built poultry houses equipped with full automation, such as remote-controlled feeding and automatic water supply," Zhang said.

Alongside scaling up production, Pengyang allows elderly villagers to raise small flocks at home while earning collective dividends at year-end. "For older residents who can no longer do heavy farm work," Zhang said, "raising a few chickens at home and getting a share of the collective income helps cover daily expenses and medical costs."

Today, the township raises about 140,000 chickens on a commercial scale, plus roughly 30,000 raised by individual households. Fresh eggs are shipped directly to Yinchuan, Lanzhou, and Pingliang.