Circular agriculture helps Li Yajun onto the road to wealth, making him a local leader

Pig farm

Millet cultivation

In 2002, affected by the national system reform, Li Yajun became a laid-off worker. He was once at a loss about his future direction. After a brief quiet period, Li Yajun went into the pig farming industry, which almost every farmer household had at the time. Although the returns were quite ordinary at the time, Li Yajun secretly resolved that he must achieve scale.

Starting with 3 pigs, he used a snowballing approach and accumulated bit by bit. By asking experts, learning from farmers, reading books, and inviting teachers, Li Yajun went from knowing nothing at first to gradually accumulating and summarizing a great deal of farming experience. Using scientific and technical methods, he overcame one problem after another in the farming process and stabilized his farming business. By 2008, he had expanded to pig sheds covering more than 10 mu, over 3,000 sq m. He also established his own agriculture and animal husbandry development company. By adopting a company-style management model, he made his farming process more scientific and standardized, and farming returns kept climbing steadily.

To help more pig farmers in a systematic and organized way after achieving wealth, Li Yajun registered the Xinyu Pig Farming Professional Cooperative in 2012. It grew from just a few people at first to more than 20 households now, implementing five-unified technical services for pig farmers, providing one-stop support for fellow villagers from source production to after-sales service, and leading everyone toward common prosperity.

But as more villagers raised pigs, pig manure naturally increased, so Li Yajun started thinking again. He said, "To grow bigger and stronger in the agriculture and animal husbandry industry in the future, we must take advantage of the local livestock industry's good development, the abundant farmyard manure, and the geographical advantage of being close to Beijing to develop organic green coarse grain production and move toward green circular agriculture."

So in 2015, Li Yajun took the lead in establishing the Xiye Agricultural Products Supply and Marketing Cooperative. At present, the cooperative has more than 50 member households in total. Through the "cooperative + farmers" cooperative business model, they carry out organic millet cultivation. This guides local farmers to choose high-quality, high-yield varieties and advanced applicable technologies, effectively raising the application rate of agricultural technology and promoting increased grain output and farmers' income. After extensive investigation, Li Yajun and the members selected the best varieties and the millet most suited to local tastes for cultivation trials. In addition, all the millet on more than 200 mu of land was fertilized with organic farmyard manure, and it grew very well. At present, their organic coarse grain processing factory is also beginning to take shape, and the cooperative's industrial chain will expand to one-stop services covering production, processing, and sales.

Hard work will surely bring rewards. Li Yajun became wealthy through pig farming, but he did not forget to give back to his hometown after getting rich. He personally led fellow villagers onto the path of enriching the people through farming, making him a true leader who achieved wealth through science.