In Shaanxi province, one man's rent-a-chicken business has helped hundreds of rural families cast off poverty. Zhang Chunpu's program is a free loan of chickens to farmers who then make money by selling the free-range eggs back to Zhang's cooperative.

Over the past decade, rent-a-chicken has helped more than 800 households in Yan'an city's Yanchang county, who previously survived on an annual per capita income of less than 2,300 yuan ($335).

The idea came to Zhang, 53, by accident. In 2003, he saw profits from selling healthy eggs and acquired 6,000 chickens.

"The birds nearly ate up all the grass on the mountain, fought with each other and didn't lay eggs. I was nearly bankrupt, but I couldn't see them starve to death," Zhang recalled.

He started giving the birds to villagers.

The birds he rents to farmers roam free in yards and on hillsides, eating pumpkins, cabbage and worms.

Zhang's cooperative earns 0.1 yuan from each egg, while farmers can earn 0.15 yuan. However, the real profit comes from the chickens.

Between 2 and 3 years old, hens begin to lay fewer eggs, so Zhang retrieved about 70 percent of them from farmers. It is more cost-efficient for farmers to raise younger chickens.

Farmers can keep the other chickens for their own use, but each hen means at least 30 yuan of profit for Zhang. "Raising chickens does not require much skill or labor. It's an easy way to make money for poorly educated or physically weak farmers," Zhang said, adding that a farmer earns about 100 yuan per year per chicken and that means away out of poverty.

According to the Yan'an poverty alleviation bureau, about 60 percent of the city's poor population cannot leave to find work because of poor health, disabilities or other reasons. It is a major headache for local governments who are responsible for helping them to a better life.

"Rent-a-chicken is a good answer. The cooperative needs a stable supply of products, while farmers want to sell their apples and chickens," said Zhang Ming, deputy head of Yanchang.

China aims to reduce the number of poor rural residents by more than 10 million this year to meet the goal of building a moderately prosperous society by 2020.

To support Zhang's program, Yanchang set up funds to reward the cooperative, with 1,000 yuan for each household it helps out of poverty, and it subsidizes rural families to the tune of 1,000 to 3,000 yuan.

There are more than 20,000 poor households registered in Yanchang. More than 98 percent of them had overcome poverty by the end of last year, mostly through cooperatives like Zhang's.

"More people will escape poverty through my program," said Zhang, who plans to increase his number of rental chickens from 70,000 to 300,000 in the next three years.