Can you make money raising eco-friendly pigs? You can earn 2,000 yuan a year per pig
“With this injection of funds, we have more confidence in shaking off poverty and getting rich!” Recently, Wu Fuyun, a villager from Fengyan Village, Dongxiang Township, Wuxuan County, beamed with joy after signing an agreement with a sponsor who would “adopt” an “eco-friendly pig.”
Wu Fuyun is an impoverished household in the village, and he chose pig farming as his way out of poverty. Although the government gives a subsidy of 700 yuan per pig, the follow-up feeding costs remained a big problem. The local Party committee and government proposed a plan for members of society to “adopt” “eco-friendly pigs.”
According to the contract, the raiser guarantees purely eco-friendly farming and does not feed the pigs commercial feed. The adopter pays 400 yuan per month for feeding costs, and half a year later receives an “eco-friendly pig” weighing more than 80 kg that has been raised on rice bran, corn and green vegetables.
Now Wu Fuyun tends 45 pigs every day, 30 of which are adopted pigs, and he looks after them with extra care. He said: “Since others have paid in advance to reserve them, I have to be diligent and must not feed them rapid-growth feed against my conscience.” After the adoptions were completed, he immediately contacted the animal husbandry station to attach ear tags, and planned to buy insurance for every pig, an approach that won the approval of the adopters. He did the math: “After deducting costs each month, I can earn 2,000 yuan, so shaking off poverty by the end of the year is no problem.”
Tang Xiangjing, the township mayor, had long been troubled by how to turn poverty alleviation from “blood transfusion” into “blood production,” and now he has found a way forward. He said: “As soon as the plan came out, in just one day the ‘eco-friendly pigs’ of 3 registered poor households were adopted by people from all walks of life who came as soon as they heard the news.”
Chen Xiandao, director of the villagers' committee of Huale Village, who adopted an “eco-friendly pig” on the spot, said, “We should spread this good model so that more people can both eat ‘eco-friendly meat’ and help impoverished households, killing two birds with one stone.”