Entrepreneur Turns Pig Farmer, Blazing a Trail in Ecological Breeding
"Being rich alone doesn't count as being rich; only when everyone is rich does it truly count. Leading the masses out of poverty and toward shared prosperity is our common philosophy." Speaking of how the pig farming industry came to Bapi Po in Tongliang Village, Jiangxi Town, Jiangnan District, Peng Min, the village's first resident secretary, and Jiang Rongcheng, general manager of the settled enterprise Nanning Xinshifeng Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd., were both extremely proud.
Driven by the philosophy of shared prosperity, the pig breeding base of Nanning Xinshifeng Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd. settled in at an astonishing speed, taking only a little over 3 months from the start of negotiations to site inspection to official settlement. In March of this year, the base officially settled in, and from that time on, the poor households of Bapi Po got on the "fast track" to escaping poverty.
The Two Sides Hit It Off Immediately to Pursue Development
Jiang Rongcheng's breeding base sits on a small hill in Bapi Po. Looking down from the top of the slope, the pig pens are neatly arranged in an orderly, staggered layout. "Don't underestimate this first-phase project. We've already built 20 pig pens here, raising 700 breeding sows, and we expect to achieve an annual output of 15,000 market hogs, with annual sales reaching 30 million yuan and profits and taxes of 5 million yuan." Speaking of pig farming, this entrepreneur who has fought in the business world for many years spoke with great fluency.
Jiang Rongcheng told reporters that he and several friends started out as partners in the feed industry and gradually accumulated capital. "After so many years in the feed industry, the market is becoming saturated. We thought about transforming together and developing a full-chain industry." No sooner said than done, Jiang Rongcheng and his team began surveying projects around Nanning.
They quickly caught the attention of Peng Min, the first resident secretary of Bapi Po. "Our village's conditions are actually not bad. The drive to the city center is less than an hour, the land is fertile, and villagers generally sell their vegetables to the city center or someone comes specifically to purchase them. But the industry is monolithic, and returns have never been able to rise." From the very beginning of her residency, Peng Min had been selecting an industry suited to the village. "Poverty alleviation can't just be 'blood transfusion'; it also needs 'blood production.'"
To secure the settlement of the ecological pig farming project and other industrial poverty alleviation initiatives, Peng Min organized several discussions between the village committee and Jiang Rongcheng and other interested entrepreneurs. "The discussions were very effective. Everyone communicated face to face, which let us understand the situation and dispelled quite a few concerns," Jiang Rongcheng said with a smile. It was precisely Peng Min's work attitude and the hopes of Bapi Po's poor households that made him and his team resolve to take the first step of the enterprise's full-industry-chain development in this small mountain village.
Poor Households Free Their Hands to Engage in Breeding
Watching the rapid completion of Nanning Xinshifeng Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd.'s pig breeding base, the poor households were filled with hope. "Now I earn nearly 3,000 yuan a month working at the enterprise. You have to know that before, several people in my family planted vegetables together and only made 10,000 yuan a year. I hear that after the second phase is completed, even more workers will be needed." Li Zitang, a poor household in the village, told reporters with gratification.
Villagers like Li Zitang who come directly to work at the enterprise are one of Bapi Po's industrial poverty alleviation models. To help poor households escape poverty sooner, Peng Min, Jiang Rongcheng and others studied the matter repeatedly and innovated on the traditional breeding-based poverty alleviation model. "The enterprise has multiple support models for poor households. First, hiring suitable laborers to work at the enterprise; second, for those interested in breeding, we provide free training, and after inspecting the environment, sell high-quality piglets to poor households to raise, while providing follow-up guidance services; third, the 'company + farmer' approach, where on the one hand the pigs given to contracted cooperative farmers are young pigs raised to viability by the enterprise, and on the other hand we purchase at guaranteed prices to ensure poor households' returns." Jiang Rongcheng explained the models in detail.
In the pig pen, Jiang Rongcheng pointed to piglets just a few days old still nursing from their mother and said: "This batch of piglets will be uniformly weaned, uniformly raised, and uniformly disease-prevented and vaccinated. Once they get through the period when their immunity is at its lowest and grow a bit bigger, they can be sent to cooperative farmers to raise. This is equivalent to the enterprise already bearing the vast majority of breeding risks, ensuring the risk rate for poor households. After all, breeding is a technical job, and once disease breaks out, losses are enormous." This breeding model, which has put "safety locks" in place through consideration on multiple fronts, has allowed poor households to free their hands and take up pig farming.
Extending the Industry Chain to Create New Highlights
The blueprint in the heart of Jiang Rongcheng, now a "pig farmer," goes beyond all this. Pointing to the slope across the way, he said, "The land for our second phase has already been secured, the motor-pumped well house has been built, and the new technology I learned abroad can now be put into use."
In addition to the breeding process, Jiang Rongcheng also carried out harmless treatment of factors that could pollute the environment, such as waste and waste liquid generated by breeding. Manure is natural, high-quality farmyard fertilizer and is provided free to more than 100 vegetable-growing households in the village. Pig urine is collected and sent to biogas digesters for fermentation, supplying electricity for production and daily life in the plant area. Wastewater is also specially treated before being discharged... According to the plan, the second phase of the breeding base will go into operation at the end of 2017, raising 800 breeding sows; the third phase is planned for completion at the end of 2019, by which time it will raise 2,200 breeding sows.
It is understood that Jiang Rongcheng has been working hard to study and draw on new international technologies and concepts for pig farming. He plans to reshuffle the ecological pig farming industry chain, extend the chain, and turn it into a new highlight of poverty alleviation. "There are still many roads to walk ahead. In this process, Secretary Peng and I both hope to lead the poor households together onto the road to moderate prosperity."