Miniature fragrant pig farming has forged a path to prosperity
In the bright sunshine of May, at the Hongyang Fragrant Pig Specialty Farm in Yanxi Village, Songkan Town, Tongzi County, Guizhou Province, groups of miniature fragrant pigs forage leisurely on the slopes around their pens, while sleeping sows are kept in two neat rows of enclosures.
Around 12 noon, Li Guanghong and his wife, dressed as "pig keepers," poured some cooked feed into the troughs. Hearing the sound, the miniature fragrant pigs nearby immediately crowded over to fight for the food. "In just a few months, these dozens of fragrant pigs will be ready for market." Looking at the miniature fragrant pigs growing fatter and sturdier by the day, Li Guanghong and his wife wore contented smiles.
Li Guanghong, the "pig keeper," was once a migrant worker drifting from place to place. The couple had worked away from home for more than 20 years, and twice returned home to start businesses, both of which ended in failure. Their savings from years of work were depleted, and the villagers mocked them, saying that Li Guanghong "should not take on a job without the right tools."
That year, Li Guanghong was visiting a friend's home in Qijiang, Chongqing. Under his friend's guidance, he inspected a fragrant pig farm in Qijiang, and the couple independently developed the idea of returning home to start a business once more. But at the thought of their previous two failures, they became anxious and hesitant again. When the staff of the Songkan Town Agricultural Machinery Service Center learned of the couple's plans, they visited them to offer encouragement and gave strong technical support, which strengthened Li Guanghong and his wife's confidence in raising fragrant pigs. "We decided to try once more. Seeing how well other people's fragrant pigs sell, I want to be a good 'pig keeper' too," Li Guanghong said with full confidence.
During the 2014 Spring Festival, with the help of town and village officials, Li Guanghong took out a bank loan to build a farm covering about 8 mu, and bought 25 breeding pigs from Qijiang, Hechuan and other places in Chongqing, investing 200,000 yuan to set up his own farm. Today, Li Guanghong's farm has 35 breeding pigs in its pens and more than 100 commercial fragrant pigs on hand. Li Guanghong said that through self-breeding and self-raising, the breeding herd is expected to reach 100 head in the second half of the year, with 800 commercial fragrant pigs on hand, generating an output value of 900,000 yuan. "The pigs are all raised in pens, but our fragrant pigs are free-range," Li Guanghong said in one sentence, revealing the "secret" of fragrant pig farming.
"Free-range fragrant pigs have meat that is more fragrant and chewier than ordinary pork, and they fetch a higher price too." Li Guanghong did the math for this writer: a fragrant pig weighs an average of 20 kg at market, and at a market price of 70 to 80 yuan per kg, one fragrant pig can sell for about 1,500 yuan.
Seeing the promising prospects for fragrant pig development, the Party Committee and Government of Songkan Town seized the opportunity and adopted a "farm + households + cooperative" model, in which the cooperative provides 2 sows free of charge to each disadvantaged household; after the sows give birth, the cooperative buys back the piglets at a unified price and sells them to Chongqing, Zunyi and other places. Calculating on the basis of each sow producing 2 litters per year and 10 piglets per litter, 2 sows can produce nearly 40 commercial fragrant pigs for market per year, generating an output value of nearly 60,000 yuan.
"According to the current poverty alleviation standard, disadvantaged households participating in fragrant pig farming need only one year to escape poverty. In the future, we will actively seek industrial poverty alleviation projects and funds from higher authorities, channel them toward specialty crop and livestock farmers, truly blaze a new path suited to Songkan's industrial poverty alleviation, and lead more fellow villagers to increase their incomes and become prosperous," said Wang Yi, Secretary of the Party Committee of Songkan Town, with firm conviction.
Industrial poverty alleviation is the most direct and effective vehicle in the battle against poverty. At present, relying on the leadership of large specialty crop and livestock farmers and industrial cooperation, many returning migrant workers, with the support of the Party Committee and Government of Songkan Town, are joining the crop and livestock industries and advancing step by step on the road to moderate prosperity.