Pig Farming Brings Wealth: A Farmer in Yongshan, Yunnan Earns Over a Million Yuan a Year

Automatic drinking-water equipment, a production room, a disinfection room... Walking into a pig farm in Makou Community, Makou Town, Yongshan County, Yunnan, you find a full set of standardized breeding equipment. Speaking of starting his own pig farm, farmer Chen Benfa was full of confidence: "We caught a good policy - the government gave us a subsidy of 250,000 yuan. In a year, more than 3,000 fattened pigs are sent to market and more than 3,000 piglets are sold, and the net profit alone is more than 1 million yuan."

In Zhongba Natural Village, Makou Community, Makou Town, there are many people and little farmland, with less than 1.8 mu of farmland per household on average, and the income the villagers get from farming the land is limited. How to make effective use of land resources and maximize income became the development challenge for the village.

As a local farmer, Chen Benfa thought that with so little land, no matter how he farmed it, he could never grow a golden treasure. He heard that the state now has a subsidy policy for pig farming, so he set his mind on raising pigs.

He acted as soon as he made up his mind. In 2013, Chen Benfa contracted 12 mu of barren hillside from the villagers for a total contract fee of 144,000 yuan, effectively putting the idle land resources of 23 households of villagers to use. Afterwards, he invested 2.8 million yuan to build the Jinjiang Breeding Farm.

Chen Benfa's pig farm is built on a steep hillside in Group 1 of Zhongba, Makou Community, with a valley below so deep the bottom cannot be seen, which is terrifying. Inside the farm, however, pens stand in rows and peach and plum trees are planted in neat rows. In the pens, piglets are waiting to be fed, which is endearing. Each finished pig is plump and strong, ready to be sent to market at any time and sold to live pig markets in Zhaotong, Jinyang in Sichuan and other places.

At present, the farm covers an area of 6,000 sq m. In a year, more than 3,000 fattened pigs are sent to market and more than 3,000 piglets are sold, making it the largest specialized pig-farming household in the village.

While running his farm well, Chen Benfa, who was the first to become rich, did not forget to lead the people around him to develop the breeding industry together and shake off poverty and become rich. He often took the initiative to go to farmers' homes to teach breeding, epidemic prevention and other techniques. Whenever a breeder ran into a problem with breeding, no matter how busy he was, he would put down his work and go help.

Although he has succeeded on the road to wealth through pig farming, he is not satisfied. Chen Benfa believes that his success in starting a business depends on the state's good policies and the government's strong support. He is determined to keep working hard, strive with all his might, create new glory for the pig-farming industry, and lead more people to become rich through pig farming and move toward a moderately prosperous life.

Today, Chen Benfa has become a well-known "big pig farmer" in Makou Town and a leader among the farmers of Makou Town in becoming rich through breeding.

In Zhongba Natural Village, Makou Town, no one has a bad word to say about Chen Benfa. As a farmer, Chen Benfa has proved with his own hard work and wealth that the countryside offers broad horizons and farmers have great prospects. It is believed that as more bold and enterprising grassroots "dreamers" embark on the road of starting businesses, with the government's strong support and the farmers' own efforts, the peak of rural entrepreneurship and development has arrived, old villages will become lands of opportunity, and barren hillsides will become fields of hope.