Chinanews.com, Lanzhou, July 21st (Shi Jingjing) Early in July, Zhang Yaping, a "collector girl" who was walking with difficulty, visited the sheep shed. When the sheep saw her, they all came up and waited for feeding.
Zhang Yaping, a villager in Lengkou Village, Zhuoni County, Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu, was born with a dislocation of the hip joint and was disabled. In junior high school, his father was maimed in a car accident, which made the originally impoverished family worse.
Zhang Yaping chose to move forward in difficulties. Even if the family conditions are not good, they drop out of school, still study hard and continue to the secondary school. After graduation, she insisted on getting rich with her own hands. "Hometown is in the alpine region of Eryin Mountain, suitable for cattle and sheep breeding." The bold Zhang Yaping decided to raise funds and became a "cowboy."
The picture shows the farmed sheep. Photo by Shi Jingjing
In 2016, in the face of doubts from her family and villagers, Zhang Yaping borrowed money everywhere, coupled with loans, and finally raised 200,000 "start-up funds". However, due to lack of breeding technology and experience in the early stage, several cattle died of disease. "I was very frustrated at the time, but I believe it will definitely solve the problem," she said.
The hard work paid off, and the first year of breeding made a profit of 60,000 yuan. Farming is about to be planted. Zhang Yaping expanded the scope of planting and transferred idle land in three nearby villages to a scale of 500 mu. A professional cooperative for farmers in Fengyu Animal Husbandry was also established, including 6 villagers with the same disabilities, and led 65 poor villagers in the village to join the community through land transfer and labor export to solve the employment problems of disabled and poor households.
The business is just getting on track. A landslide in 2017 caused all the cowsheds to collapse, causing a loss of more than 800,000 yuan. At this time, Zhang Yaping received a lot of help, and successively received support policies and incentive funds from the prefecture and county Disabled Persons’ Federation, the agriculture and animal husbandry departments, and the township government, as well as technical guidance for breeding to help her tide over the difficulties.
In recent years, the cooperative has continued to expand in scale, and currently has a total annual income of 9.16 million yuan. In 2019, another 20 poverty-stricken households will be recruited. Currently, 85 poverty-stricken households have been effectively promoted. The society has successively been rated as "women's poverty alleviation workshop", "employment poverty alleviation workshop" and "demonstration cooperative".
This year, Zhang Yanping decided to transform Tibetan sheep breeding, with a loan of 2 million yuan to build sheep sheds and forage storage. "I walk slowly. Others patrol the sheep shed for an hour, and I walk a lap for 2 hours." Zhang Yaping said that he must continue to learn and upgrade, explore and move forward, all the way to "the sheep."
Today, Zhang Yaping has transformed from a poor household to a leader in getting rich. Zhang Yaping, who has always been smiling in the interview, said, “In fact, I have encountered many setbacks, and I am still willing to face life with a smile. Next, I hope to lead more poor people and disabled people like me to increase income and become rich.” (End)