Longshanwa Native Pigs in Hunan Root Out a Road to Prosperity Through Farming

"The two native piglets we adopted free of charge at the beginning of the year will be ready for market within the year, bringing in more than 5,000 yuan in income. We've really benefited from Longshanwa." On the 10th, in Guanyazi Village, Jiangjiayan Town, Zhuxi County, villager Wang Xiuqin was feeding a black pig weighing more than 200 jin.

Longshanwa is the registered trademark of the Qinba Native Pig Farmers' Professional Cooperative, and also the name of a small locality in Group 1 of Guanyazi Village, surrounded by green mountains with a babbling stream.

A cement road connecting the village and reaching every courtyard separates the Longshanwa office area and online store operation area from the black pig breeding base.

Two enclosed breeding farms arranged in tiers stand side by side, built against the mountain. Long Tao, chairman of the cooperative, introduced that in front of the farms is a 5-mu pig feed cultivation base, and behind them the pine and cypress grove is the black pigs' "amusement park." "This year the farm has raised 600 pigs. So far, more than 3,000 orders of Longshanwa ecological black pork have been sold online, with sales reaching more than 1 million yuan."

Long Tao, now 28 years old, became a white-collar worker at a foreign enterprise in Hangzhou after graduating from Lanzhou Jiaotong University in 2010. A trip home to visit relatives and friends introduced him to the local old breed "Hanjiang black pig," known for its tender lean meat, non-greasy fat, crisp skin, and glutinous fragrant taste - "put it in clear water, and the more you boil it, the more fragrant it becomes."

After working for one year, Long Tao resigned and returned to his hometown of Guanyazi Village to start raising "Hanjiang black pigs." He successively bought back 35 black pigs at high prices in Shiyan, Ankang and other places. Through three generations of crossbreeding and selection, he bred an improved variety of local black pig and founded the largest ecological black pig breeding base in northwestern Hubei.

Last year, Long Tao initiated the establishment of the Zhuxi County Qinba Native Pig Farmers' Professional Cooperative, following the "Internet + cooperative + base + farmers" black pig breeding and free-range model to expand the scale of native pig farming.

For impoverished households registered in the poverty alleviation system, the cooperative provides 2 to 4 piglets free of charge, and after they are ready for market, the cooperative buys them back at market price. Luo Yanshu, a 63-year-old villager from Qiugou Village, has a family of 9. In October last year he adopted two piglets; in June this year one was ready for market, bringing in 2,600 yuan; the other can be sold after the Double Ninth Festival.

Today, the cooperative's members have grown from the initial 10 households to 136 households. Among them, it has helped 53 registered impoverished households and created employment for 156 people. At present, the cooperative has provided more than 200 piglets free of charge to impoverished households.

In 2013, Long Tao registered the "Longshanwa" brand trademark for black pork, and is now applying for organic food certification. "We want to make Zhuxi black pig another specialty industry after tea and tribute rice," Long Tao said confidently.