The "top woman" in pig farming forges a different path to wealth

When people mention Li Chunyan, the villagers of Xinfa Bao Village, Quanyanling Township, Lishu County, Jilin Province, vividly describe her as a diligent "spring swallow." In 1993, Li Chunyan began small-scale courtyard farming, at first raising just one black sow. Today it has grown into a large-scale farm with more than 800 fattening pigs and more than 170 breeding sows on hand, and she has registered and established the "Lishu County Quanyanling Township Xinfa Bao Mutai Pig Farm." She is a well-known pig-raising expert in the area. Inspired by her, starting in 1994, more than a hundred households in the village gradually embarked on the road to prosperity by raising pigs at home. Villager Lu Juan, who works away from home, said: "If Sister Chunyan had not helped us so warmly back then, my family would not have become well-off, and I would not have the courage today to go out and venture into the world."

In 1991, when 24-year-old Li Chunyan married into her husband's family, the household had not a single decent piece of furniture or appliance, and instead was deep in debt because of her father-in-law's illness. Clever and capable, Li Chunyan tried farming the land with her family, but what pained her was that the grain harvested after a year of hard work could only bring back a meager income, and the whole family lived very frugally. Li Chunyan thought: living like this was not going to work. Only by thinking things through and taking action would life have joy and would a person feel fulfilled. She had to rely on the advantages at hand, find ways and seek a way out to become prosperous. After investigation and feasibility studies, she decided to develop the breeding industry, borrowed a little money here and there, and began raising pigs.

Li Chunyan said: "When I started preparing to build the pig farm in 1992, I spent almost every day in the pigpen with the pigs. I also had to seriously study pig-raising techniques, consult materials, and master all kinds of knowledge about pig epidemic prevention, which also increased my confidence in pig farming. Now I can be said to be both boss and technician. Not to mention when my own pigs get sick, even when pigs at other nearby pig farms get sick, I can go and help treat them."

Li Chunyan told the reporter: "In 2010 my family built a new pig barn, and on the fifth day of the first lunar month we began bringing in piglets, about 200 of them, and in less than half a month the piglets all died. At that time we lost so much that I even felt like dying. After calming down and investigating the cause, I felt that raising pigs must involve self-breeding and self-raising in order to ensure the safety of pig epidemic prevention. So I began raising 17 breeding sows, and also raised boars, and I learned artificial insemination of breeding sows, piglet delivery and epidemic prevention. At most, one breeding sow of mine could produce 21 piglets. Now we are on the path of large-scale farming. This year the pig market is very good, and it is expected to earn more than 1 million yuan in profit. I am full of confidence in pig farming."

After 23 years of effort, Li Chunyan has built a modern, large-scale pig farming base. There are now five standardized pig houses with a building area of 10,000 sq m, producing 4,000 pigs a year, with an annual output value of 6 million yuan. She has successively obtained the National Professional Qualification Certificate for Women Brokers, and won titles including a woman expert in the "Double Study, Double Compare" program for rural women in Siping City and a "top woman" in prosperity through the "Double Study, Double Compare" program in Lishu County.