Mine owner leads villagers to prosperity by raising pigs

"In early spring, it is even more important to do a good job in preventing pig diseases..." On the morning of February 2, more than 50 villagers from Jianshan Village, Hekou Town, Jianghua Yao Autonomous County crowded into the villagers' activity room to listen to Chen Zigui, the village's large-scale pig farmer, give a lecture on pig disease prevention. One villager said: "He talks about his own personal experience, which is vivid, easy to understand, and highly relevant."

Among the villagers, Chen Zigui also has another name, "mine owner." Many years ago, Chen Zigui partnered with others to open a mine. Later, he thought that pork is eaten every day, the market is broad, and the breeding cycle is not long, so he wanted to switch to raising pigs. Unexpectedly, many people poured cold water on him: raising pigs is hard work, and the risk of disease prevention is high. As a "mine owner," can you really do it? Chen Zigui's stubborn streak kicked in: where there is a will, there is a way; if you do not know how to raise them, can you not learn?

In 2007, Chen Zigui rented more than 1000 sq m of land to build pig sheds, bought 56 piglets, and began his new venture. Every day he fed the pigs and cleaned up pig manure, staying busy until after 11 p.m.

However, before long, Chen Zigui paid an "expensive tuition fee." In the spring of 2008, the pigs he was raising suddenly fell ill. Every day he fed the pigs Chinese herbal medicine and gave them injections, and even moved his bed next to the pig pen to live there. The pigs' condition was brought under control, but more than 20 still died of illness.

After this lesson, Chen Zigui went everywhere to attend scientific pig farming training courses and took the initiative to learn from other pig farmers.

3 years ago, Guangdong Wens Breeding Group entered Jianghua, and many people took a wait-and-see attitude. Chen Zigui decisively joined Wens Breeding Group through the "company + farmers" model, with the company providing piglets, technology, and buying back finished pigs, and he marketed more than 15,000 pigs annually. Chen Zigui also built a 120 cubic meter biogas digester and used biogas slurry to plant more than 200 mu of navel oranges and rose-scented tangerines, with annual income exceeding 1 million yuan.

Now that he had become rich, Chen Zigui voluntarily helped the villagers make their fortunes. The year before last, impoverished household Zhang Jide could not find a way to escape poverty and become rich. Chen Zigui went to his door, had a heart-to-heart talk with him, suggested that he raise pigs, and guaranteed him, helping him get a loan to solve his funding problem. Now, Zhang Jide markets 2,500 pigs annually and has embarked on the road to prosperity.

Early last year, villager Li Bin took his only savings of 8,000 yuan and came to Chen Zigui, saying he wanted to raise pigs. After hearing this, Chen Zigui lent him the funds to build pig sheds and also provided him with piglets and so on. Last year, Li Bin marketed 1,600 pigs, with a net income of nearly 200,000 yuan.

Under Chen Zigui's leadership, 48 households in Jianshan Village developed pig farming, and all built biogas digesters. The whole village markets 50,000 pigs annually. It also adopted the "biogas + fruit" model, with the whole village planting more than 8,000 mu of rose-scented tangerines and other crops, with an average annual income of more than 10,000 yuan per mu.