Ecological Pig Farming Leads Chen Yaping of Ningxian County onto the Road to Prosperity

"Before registering the cooperative and setting up the high-quality ecological breeding pig reproduction and raising base, I visited modern high-quality ecological breeding pig demonstration enterprises in Beijing, Shandong and other places, and consulted many experts about the market prospects and breeding techniques for high-quality ecological breeding pigs," said Chen Yaping, a returned migrant entrepreneur from Jiexi Village, Panke Town, Ningxian County, on April 23. "The only purpose of raising ecological meat pigs on a large scale is to join hands with my fellow villagers, using advanced farming concepts and breeding techniques, to increase income and achieve prosperity together."

Chen Yaping, now 41 years old, set off to work in Beijing after graduating from junior high school because his family was poor. In Beijing, seeing the city's prosperous development and then thinking of his hometown's backwardness and poverty, he resolved to start a business together with his fellow villagers and grow rich. While working, Chen Yaping discovered that urban residents' demand for ecological food was growing ever greater, and that his hometown, located on the western edge of the Ziwuling forest area with abundant forests and fragrant orchards and beautiful pastoral scenery, was very suitable for developing ecological farming. With this idea in mind, he taught himself while working and mastered a great deal of scientific and technological knowledge about breeding and raising ecological meat pigs.

In 2012, Chen Yaping returned to his hometown and began his entrepreneurial venture. With government support, he joined with 5 villagers to register and establish the Ningxian Jianong Farmers' Professional Cooperative, was elected as its chairman, and led the villagers in building a base for breeding and raising 1,000 head of high-quality ecological breeding pigs on the gully edge by the western plateau of Jiexi Village.

In the cooperative's high-quality ecological breeding pig reproduction and raising base, modern farming facilities are fully equipped. Surrounding the base are apple orchards and nursery stock gardens; the environment is quiet and the air is fresh, making it an ideal environment for breeding and raising high-quality ecological breeding pigs.

In recent years, in order to build this base into a leading modern agricultural industrialization enterprise for breeding and raising high-quality ecological meat pigs for the entire county and even the entire city, Chen Yaping has led more than 60 cooperative members, using a model of "the cooperative provides breeding pigs, standardized ecological feed formulas and technical guidance, and uniformly buys back finished ecological meat pigs," following the path of "cooperative + base + member households + farmer households," continuously optimizing the breeding and raising base, improving infrastructure, and expanding the farming scale. The cooperative has also hired animal husbandry and veterinary physicians from Longnan, installed broadband, set up WeChat groups, and launched e-commerce. On the basis of regularly organizing members to go to other places for on-site observation and inspection, it also organizes members to learn high-quality ecological breeding pig reproduction and raising techniques through the Internet and WeChat groups.

Zhang Min, a merchant from Shaanxi who came to buy finished pigs, told this writer: "Besides eating grain feed such as corn and rice and millet, the pigs here also eat wild grass, alfalfa, tree leaves and other forage. Pigs raised this original ecological way taste good, sell well, and fetch a good price." Because the pig manure produced at the base contains no harmful substances, it is all bought by local ecological organic fruit and vegetable operators as raw material for producing biogas.

Up to now, the cooperative's base has cumulatively provided more than 16,500 head of high-quality ecological breeding pigs to member households and farmer households in surrounding counties and cities, and sold 25,500 head of high-quality ecological meat pigs externally. Member households that raise 10 high-quality ecological meat pigs a year, compared with ordinary farmer households, increase their annual income by more than 10,000 yuan.

"Today, this cooperative's breeding base has driven the sustained development of ecological farming and planting throughout the town, boosted the development of modern sightseeing agriculture across the town, and helped nearly 1,000 households grow rich," said Li Hongkui, mayor of Panke Town. "The farming model here turns pig manure into biogas energy and biogas slurry and residue into farmyard manure for producing ecological organic fruits and vegetables. It has not only successfully solved the problem of rural farming pollution and created a complete ecological circular agriculture industry chain, but also added luster to the building of a beautiful homeland."