Pig farming lifted impoverished Zhou Guixi out of poverty

Every morning in Xiaosuan Village, Shilou County, the first thing villager Zhou Guixi does after getting up is to go and check the pigpen. Looking at the plump, sturdy piglets, a happy smile spreads across his face.

Zhou Guixi, 40 years old this year, is one of the 121 registered impoverished households in Xiaosuan Village. He has elderly parents above him and two children in school below him, and the whole family relies on Zhou Guixi and his wife working from dawn to dusk every day. Money is needed for his elderly parents' medical treatment and medicine, and money is needed for the children's schooling, leaving the whole family struggling to get by. This year, with the help of the Shilou County Party Committee and Liu Qihu, Chief Accountant of the Luliang Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology, he has relied on pig farming and his own efforts to stride down the road to prosperity...

Driving into Xiaosuan Village, Shilou County, a clean village road winds its way out toward every corner of the village... Though it was winter, hardworking villagers could still be seen busy working everywhere. In the distance, the reporter spotted Zhou Guixi, busily cleaning the pigsty with brisk, capable movements. After exchanging pleasantries, we sat in his courtyard and chatted about everyday matters, listening to him tell the story of his escape from poverty.

"Don't be fooled by the scale of the pig farming now - at the beginning it was not easy at all." Speaking of the hardships along the way, Zhou Guixi was full of feeling. "I raised pigs before too, but back then we had no money and no professional skills, so we just relied on old methods. We didn't raise many pigs and they grew slowly, and on top of that they didn't sell well, so a whole year of hard work often still lost money."

The first step is always the hardest. With no experience and no skills, Zhou Guixi encountered many difficulties as he tried his hand at pig farming. To solve the technical problems, the town government contacted the county animal husbandry bureau to organize training sessions for pig farmers across the town. Hard work pays off, and Zhou Guixi gradually became an expert in pig farming. With the help of the village committee, he took the initiative to apply for a 120,000-yuan breeding loan and expanded his farming scale. Through his efforts, in 2016 he added 72 head to his inventory, and under the county's diversified industry subsidy policy, he received a 5,000-yuan industry subsidy. Now Zhou Guixi's pig farming is growing bigger and bigger; he processes his own feed, cleans the pigsty himself... his income is considerable, and he has achieved escape from poverty.

As the saying goes, "The wise are not perplexed, the brave are not afraid, the diligent are not poor, the honest are not corrupt." As the pillar of his family, Zhou Guixi, besides raising pigs, also actively looked for ways to earn money to supplement the household income. Through the village committee's active efforts, in November this year Zhou Guixi officially became a forest ranger, and is expected to achieve a stable annual income of more than 6,000 yuan. At the same time, the village committee helped him secure various preferential agricultural subsidies totaling 630 yuan.

Now Zhou Guixi has steadily met the standard of "two no-worries and three guarantees." He quietly did the math himself: "This year, the family should be able to bring in 30,000 yuan no matter what, which is 7,500 yuan per person. There's hope for the days ahead." The former village party secretary of Xiaosuan Village remarked with emotion: "Achieving escape from poverty depends not only on government assistance, but more importantly on the impoverished people themselves." Yes, Zhou Guixi is exactly that kind of person: facing hardship, he did not "wait, depend, or demand," but instead dared to strive and fight, using hard work to walk the road out of poverty toward prosperity.

Speaking of his plans for the future, Zhou Guixi was full of confidence. He plans to continue expanding his farming scale, so that his pig-farming business develops faster and better, and he can live an ever more prosperous life!