Mangshan, Yizhang, Hunan: "Black pigs" open up a road to prosperity for the Yao mountain village
"Thump, thump, thump..." At 8 a.m. on March 1, in Tiaoshizi, a natural village of Xiling Village, Mangshan Yao Ethnic Township, Yizhang County, 58-year-old Deng Longgui held a bamboo tube in his left hand and a wooden stick in his right, striking it. Suddenly, a group of black pigs and silkie chickens appeared from somewhere, happily gathering around him from the forest in all directions with their calls. Deng Longgui began another day of work, feeding these free-range "little treasures," as well as mixing feed and cleaning up. "We have over 130 Mangshan black pigs here, free-range. It's been half a year, each weighs about 80 jin. They can only be sold after a full year of raising. There are also 200 silkie chickens. We share the profits with Professor He!" Deng Longgui said with a smile.
The local name of this place is "Jinjichong." Surrounded by green trees, shaded by bamboo and wood, with a babbling stream, it is about 2 km from the small village. There is a set of simple bamboo and wood fencing, a tiled feed shed, and rows of imitation-ecological pig shelters - simple, primitive, ecological. The half-fed piglets habitually scattered again, each going up the mountain to find food. "When it comes to Professor He and how he came to work with us poor farmers, it's a long story..." Faced with the question, Deng Longgui, this simple Yao man, did not know where to begin.
The pursuit of prosperity
Tiaoshizi, a Yao village with a history of over a thousand years, sits halfway up a mountain at an altitude of over 800 m. It has 24 households and more than 80 Yao people, all of them poor households. No one can say for sure why this place is called "Tiaoshizi." Here they work at sunrise and rest at sunset, living a poor and simple life.
Before 2000, there was no road here. The Yao people lived in mud-walled houses. To carry fertilizer from the Mangshan street, they had to make a three-hour round trip. When someone built a house, they went to the Zhong family 4 km away to carry roof tiles; often the whole village, men and women, young and old, turned out, and it took two days to finish carrying them. In 1998, with partial government funding, the villagers made a firm resolve, digging with hoes and carrying on their shoulders. Through three rounds of spring, summer, autumn, and winter, they built a 4-km winding dirt road climbing up the mountain. The era of carrying fertilizer and tiles on their shoulders finally ended. But after heavy rain, they still had to clear it ten or eight times every year. Beginning in 2008, the Yao people tried every means to seek government support, raised funds themselves, and donated money. In four stages, they paved the village access dirt road with cement.
With the road open, the Yao people's living conditions improved greatly, and the purchase prices for bamboo and tea also rose. But because there was no good industry, everyone still had not truly become prosperous. Most families still relied on growing tea, selling bamboo, and going out to work to earn a little money to get by. In 2013, Zhao Wangbao and his relatives Zhao Guangfu and Pan Fu jointly bought 6 small wild boars. They thought wild boars could sell for more money. In the end, three pigs survived, but they could not breed, and they lost nearly 20,000 in costs. Yet their steps in pursuit of prosperity never stopped.
An accidental connection
The "Professor He" Deng Longgui mentioned is named He Yong. He was once a university teacher, then resigned and went into business, successively setting up law firms and working as a lawyer in Chenzhou and Guangzhou. In 2009, he gave up a lawyer's job with an annual income of a million, and amid everyone's incomprehension and doubts, moved into a small mountain hut at Diaoyukeng in Mangshan. He did not understand breeding at first. He began raising bamboo rats and stonefrogsin the mountains. He used clumsy methods, observing and thinking day and night without stop. In the end, he not only became very good at raising them, but also mastered techniques that experts did not know. However, they did not fit the daily diet of the general public, and the prospects were not ideal, so he cut them. Later he thought of raising wild boars. He kept experimenting, and finally selected a nationally protected breed - the Xiangxi black pig. Using Xiangxi black pigs crossed with local wild boars, he successfully bred a new variety. In ancient times, superior pork used for sacrifices was called tun, so he named the new variety Mangshan black tun. Because they are grazed in mountains with no pollution at all, eat fermented corn, soybeans, and rice bran, drink mountain mineral water, and breathe air rich in negative oxygen ions, the meat is delicious, the skin crisp and the meat fragrant, the fat not greasy, with a unique taste. The ex-farm whole-carcass price is 50 yuan per jin, and the average terminal retail price is more than 100 yuan per jin.
Having heard that the black tun had a good social response and market conditions, in the winter of 2014 Zhao Wangbao came to Diaoyukeng in Mangshan. Seeing the Mangshan black tun running on the mountain, he was very excited and said to He Yong: "We have big mountains in Tiaoshizi. Put the Mangshan black tun there to raise. Our natural village will cooperate with you." He Yong had originally also wanted to set up another base and expand the scale, so when he heard this, he very much wanted to go see the environment.
He Yong came to Tiaoshizi and looked around five or six times in all. He also visited some households. In terms of geographical location, he took a fancy to Jinjichong. In terms of the foundation among the people, he felt their strong desire to become prosperous. He Yong finally made up his mind: All right, I will help you. I believe we can achieve a win-win.
A new model for poverty alleviation
"Chairman Mao said all power goes to the peasant association. In our black tun breeding, 'all power goes to the farmers.' It is a cooperative model, with farmers as the main body and full participation. The cashier and accountant are all chosen by them themselves. Everyone is very supportive and very happy..." He Yong said. Zhao Wangbao went into every household and asked whether they wanted to buy shares and raise Mangshan black tun. In the end, 21 of the 24 households took part.
He Yong's Tulibaji company and the Mangshan Tiaoshizi farmers' cooperative jointly established Tulibaji Shizi Ecological Agriculture Company, each holding 50% of the shares. The farming households are responsible for breeding, and after twelve months he purchases according to a unified set price.
Zhao Wangbao said that if they were going to do it, they should do it properly and live up to national policy. In March, he began running around for the paperwork. In May, the project officially broke ground. Everyone in the village who was at home went to build the road, build imitation-ecological pig sheds, and build the feed house. They voluntarily offered not to take wages, treating the cooperative's affairs as their own. This greatly surprised and moved He Yong, and he told everyone he met that these farmer brothers of his were very good.
In June 2015, Zhao Wangbao, Deng Longgui, Zhou Yungang, and Zhou Binhui, a group of Yao men, carefully held the Mangshan black tun and put them into their new home. The next day, two more batches of Mangshan black tun arrived at Jinjichong in Tiaoshizi.
When the young Mangshan black tun arrived at their new home, He Yong smelled a slight odor in the pig manure. He immediately adjusted the formula of the fermentation material and added Chinese herbal medicine, solving the problem.
On the third day, the Mangshan black tun took cautious steps, slowly heading toward the mountain and entering the vast mountains to forage.
"The company's legal representative is a farmer, and the finances are also managed by farmers. A company like this is rare nationwide, so the farmers are very supportive. The villagers provide the mountain land, and each household only needs to invest a few thousand yuan in shares. The cost is low, the risk is small, and the prospects are good. It is expected that by July next year the returns will be considerable!" said Huang Chan, director of the CPPCC liaison working committee of Mangshan Yao Ethnic Township.
In terms of pig disease prevention and control, the air in the mountains is good, the grazing density is low, the water is good, and Chinese herbal medicine is appropriately used for early prevention. The technology is basically mature. In terms of sales, several companies from the Pearl River Delta are already negotiating to order Tiaoshizi's Mangshan black tun. Tiaoshizi has 3,000 mu of mountain land. Calculated at 2 black tun grazed per 3 mu, the full capacity reaches 2,000 head, with good prospects for prosperity.
"What we do is a brand. What we spread is a kind of natural, high-quality ingredient, not gourmet food. Right now farmers lack knowledgeable and ambitious leaders. I hope they participate independently, gain knowledge, change their thinking, and achieve prosperity," He Yong said.
On mountain after mountain, sturdy Mangshan black tun run, like golden pigs, building a bridge to prosperity for the poor Yao village.