Zhang Shouming of Fengdu returns home to start a business, using technical experience to help lift himself out of poverty and toward prosperity

Located in the southeast of Xingyi Town, Fengdu County, Tanxungou Village has a single-industry structure and relatively lagging economic development because of its high altitude and steep terrain, and the villagers have long relied on raising a small number of poultry and livestock as their source of income. In recent years, with policy support, the village has increased investment to boost the development of the livestock industry, enabling many villagers to embark on the road to prosperity. Zhang Shouming, a poor household, is one of them. Through his own efforts, he not only shed the label of poor household, but will also pay off 200,000 yuan in external debt next year.

Beset by poverty and illness, family life falls into difficulty

"If you don't keep an eye on them, they'll all rush in and fight for it, and some piglets won't get to eat and will go hungry. Actually, one teat per pig is more than enough; you have to keep watching them all the time." Recently, Zhang Shouming was watching the piglets nurse in the pigpen, and looking at the litter of piglets scrambling to suckle greedily, he felt very gratified.

When talking about his experience working in Zhejiang, Zhang Shouming's face showed some pride. He used to work alone in Hangzhou, and an annual income of 70,000 to 80,000 yuan allowed this man to support a family and at the same time provide for four elders, which was no easy thing.

However, even this barely passable life did not last long.

Zhang Shouming's wife suffered from a difficult gynecological illness, and the high treatment costs brought huge expenses to a family whose burden was already not light. The family began to fall into the predicament of becoming poor because of illness and put on the label of "poor household." His wife's health was weak, so she could only take care of the children at home and had no source of income. The children, who were still in school, also needed a considerable amount of money. This situation brought worry to the "pillar" of this family who had left his hometown.

Careful planning, returning home to start a business creates a turning point

Zhang Shouming thought for a long time. In order to take care of his family, he finally made up his mind. Carrying his remaining savings of 80,000 yuan, he set out on the journey home one day in November 2014. Through a series of preparations, he used this money to open a small-scale pig farm and began his entrepreneurial path.

"Raising pigs is not an easy thing; there's a lot of knowledge in it!" Zhang Shouming said with a smile. Fortunately, his family had raised pigs in earlier years, and he had been influenced by it since childhood and had worked with his own hands, accumulating a lot of experience.

"The most fundamental purpose of developing pig farming is to continuously increase the number of pigs and constantly improve their quality so as to meet people's demand for pork products. In developing breeding, attention should be paid to the four central links of 'breeding,' 'reproduction,' 'raising,' and 'management.'" Zhang Shouming told this writer that he specially selected four high-quality sows from a large farm for self-breeding and self-raising, each costing several thousand yuan. After returning home, he also used corn, wheat husks, and other crops to make feed himself, adopting different feeding plans for different pigs. He analyzed that adult pigs have regular eating habits and only need to be fed twice a day, while piglets do not eat much each time, so they need smaller, more frequent meals, three to four times a day.

He summed it up himself: pig farming mainly depends on 75% management, plus 15% breed selection, plus 15% feed selection. He worked from dawn to dusk, doing a good job of disinfection and epidemic prevention in the pigpen, and rushed around everywhere.

Under the guidance of the local animal husbandry station, he became adept at raising pigs.

Thriving, business development drives the whole village

Zhang Shouming's pig farm brought some improvement to his life, but at the beginning it was not entirely satisfactory.

In 2014, the pork market was not good, and Zhang Shouming chose to persevere quietly.

"Maybe Heaven was looking after us poor households; as soon as I started raising pigs, the market improved." Zhang Shouming told this writer that beginning in the first half of 2015, the price of pork rose, reaching 7.5 yuan per jin, and by the second half of 2015, pork could already sell for 9 yuan per jin. This price had not fallen by this year, but had tended to stabilize, which made Zhang Shouming glad that he had not given up back then.

Today, Zhang Shouming's pig farm, with a total investment of more than 600,000 yuan, has begun to take shape.

He breeds and raises pigs himself, and also sells piglets to nearby villagers for breeding development. This year alone, he sold more than 100 adult pigs and more than 100 piglets, with gross income reaching more than 300,000 yuan.

He has set a goal: next year he will pay off all of his external debt of more than 200,000 yuan.

As for the next step, he plans to breed and raise more sows and sell them to nearby villagers to stabilize pork prices, and he is also preparing to lead everyone in developing the pig farming industry together. As for the future, his heart is full of hope.