Disabled but strong-willed, he shook off poverty by starting a pig-farming business

He is disabled in the legs, yet remains strong-willed and constantly strives for self-improvement, always keeping firm faith; he once served as a soldier and worked as a migrant worker, and for 16 years he has always held the dream of starting a business and escaping poverty, and with his own tenacious willpower he has truly carved out a path to wealth through breeding and entrepreneurship. He is Shi Rongxiang, a villager of Shelang Village, Xiaojie Subdistrict, Eshan County.

Physically disabled but not discouraged

At first I did not know how to do anything and just stayed at home all day, and I always felt uneasy.” Recently, at Shi Rongxiang's home, he told reporters that after graduating from junior high school in 1977, he had served as a soldier and worked as a migrant worker elsewhere. In 1996, when Shi Rongxiang was in the prime of life, long-term rheumatoid arthritis caused pain in his lower limbs. Later, accompanied by his family, he sought medical treatment in many places including Kunming, but in the end he was left with a disability in his lower limbs. The treatment used up all the family's savings and left them more than 70,000 yuan in medical debt, making an already difficult family struggle even more, and also dealt him a heavy blow.

Medicine alone costs more than 10,000 yuan every year, and the pressure of life is too great.” Shi Rongxiang recalled that because his legs and feet were inconvenient, he could not do labor, while his wife had to take care of him and also cultivate more than 40 mu of farmland. Whenever he saw his wife bustling about inside and outside for the family, he felt full of guilt. Looking at his young son and daughter, Shi Rongxiang felt even worse, and amid the bitterness he also wanted to work hard to find something to do.

Seeking a way and working hard to start a business

In 2000, Shi Rongxiang searched everywhere through radio, television and newspapers for a path suitable for his own business startup, and finally chose pig farming. In the early days of breeding, he bought 10 breeding pigs with a try-it-and-see attitude and began breeding and raising them.

From piglet care, disease prevention and control, and feed formulation to contacting sellers, I explored everything myself.” Shi Rongxiang said that in the first year of breeding, because his wife still had to busy herself with farm work in the fields, he could only drag his disabled lower limbs around the breeding farm, while also finding time to strengthen his learning through television and farming books. In the second year of breeding, with support from the county disabled persons' federation, Shi Rongxiang invested another 150,000 yuan to expand the breeding site and built a standardized breeding farm covering more than 2 mu. With help from the county disabled persons' federation, the farm achieved a large-scale breeding model focused on piglet breeding and fattening pigs, and the breeding scale expanded from more than 30 head marketed per year at first to more than 600 head in 2015. Sales revenue increased year by year, and the family's living conditions also changed.

Holding on to the dream and striving for moderate prosperity

There have also been times of loss over the years, but we have never given up breeding.” Shi Rongxiang said that the strong temperature drop and rain and snow at the beginning of this year caused more than 80 piglets to freeze to death one after another, with losses at the farm reaching more than 50,000 yuan. Later, he tried every possible method to save the remaining 100 piglets, so that after the beginning of spring there was no shortage of piglets and the pens were not empty. Similar setbacks have occurred more times than he can remember in Shi Rongxiang's breeding experience, but he has always persisted in his dream of breeding.

After starting breeding, the family's income increased, and we also repaired the house and bought a car. We also plan to build a new house next door.” Shi Rongxiang told reporters that although he is disabled, he still wants to use his own hands to create the fruits of labor and continue to do a good job in breeding. With the expansion of the breeding scale, his son has now also joined his large-scale pig farming. The whole family has not only paid off its debts, but pig farming alone can bring in more than 100,000 yuan in net income each year. Having set his sights on the breeding industry, Shi Rongxiang plans to further expand the breeding scale, strive to achieve 1,000 head of pigs marketed per year, and help surrounding farmers get rich through pig farming.

(Li Duoye, Song Lichun)