Wild Boar Farming Paves a New Road to Prosperity

When people think of wild boars, they picture long tusks, jet-black fur and a fierce temperament that inspires fear. But He Jun, a villager from Shibitang Village in Baimangying Town, Jianghua Yao Autonomous County, can live in harmony with wild boars.

The story of how he got into wild boar farming begins with his experience as a mountain forest contractor. During one patrol of the mountain with his companions, he discovered a litter of wild boar piglets. The sow was too fierce, and they dared not approach, so they hurriedly called an old hunter to help catch them. After a fierce struggle, the sow was shot dead. But faced with these 8 piglets, they were at a loss. Eating them was out of the question since they were too small, and raising them seemed impossible since none of them had ever done it. However, because of their location in the Yao mountains, they occasionally got to eat wild boar meat, whose thick, chewy skin and delicious meat were unmatched by ordinary domestic pigs. He Jun figured that since he had experience raising domestic pigs and the wild boars had been found on his own mountain, he decided to keep them, hastily building a one-meter-high fence to enclose them on his mountain. At first, he had no thought of large-scale farming, just planning to raise them for his own family to eat.

But within a few months, the wild boars began dying one after another, all suddenly gasping for breath and dropping dead while seemingly full of energy. There were no other wild boar farmers nearby, so why couldn't wild boars survive when raised the way domestic pigs were? He Jun, who loved to ponder everything, began constantly consulting experts and came to understand that wild boars need a large range of activity and must be free-range. In addition, domestic pigs generally need special feed, while wild boars eat melons, fruits, wild grasses, wild vegetables and even small wild animals, making the farming cost relatively low. His growing understanding of wild boars' habits filled He Jun with interest in the wild boar market. He could perfectly well try raising wild boars in the mountain forest, adapting to local conditions, so he asked around among friends and used his savings to buy 20 improved special wild boars to raise freely on the mountain.

One early morning, the village party secretary called him to say his wild boars were ravaging the villagers' cornfields. He rushed over to take a look, and good grief, they would not be driven away: when you came, they ran; when you left, they came back. They were determined to eat the cornfield bare. With villagers complaining constantly, He Jun got the idea of enclosing the mountain with wire fencing. But his savings were already invested and he had not yet recouped the cost, so where would he find spare money to fence the mountain? Below the mountain were the villagers' houses, and it would be terrible if the boars attacked people. After borrowing money from relatives and friends, it still was not enough. Looking at the half-built fence, He Jun did not want to give up. When he tried approaching the government, the problem was solved at once: the town government and the village committee helped him coordinate and resolve the site issue, and the village committee even provided a guarantee so that He Jun successfully obtained a loan of 80,000 yuan from the county employment bureau, completely easing his urgent need.

And so, with his willingness to endure hardship and his persistent spirit, He Jun embarked on a path to prosperity through wild boar farming. Three years have passed, and He Jun happily told this writer that because of the long growing period and good environment, wild boar meat was well received as soon as it hit the market. Today his farming scale has expanded from the 20 pigs of back then to more than 300, and the price of wild boar meat has risen to about 80 yuan per kilogram. This year, he expects a total of 180 wild boars to be sent to market, and calculating at 70 kilograms per boar and 80 yuan per kilogram, his income is expected to exceed 1 million yuan.

Talking about his future plans, He Jun said: "The entrepreneurship policies in my hometown are good now. I also want to plant fruit trees in the mountain forest, develop ecological agriculture, and prepare measures such as establishing a training and breeding cooperative, so that the pigs will thrive and more villagers will be lifted out of poverty through farming."