Shanggao County Animal Husbandry Cooperative in Jiangxi Helps Pig Farmers Avoid Breeding Risks

    Faced with a sluggish live pig market and persistently high feed costs, the Shanggao County Animal Husbandry Cooperative has taken active measures to stabilize the live pig market and help pig farmers hedge risks.

On the one hand, the cooperative has adopted a collective approach to reduce breeding costs. It has opened up new feed purchasing channels, buying directly from manufacturers and distributing the feed to pig farmers. Based on the cooperative's current breeding scale of 200,000 live pigs in Shanggao County, this can save more than 7 million yuan in costs. In the face of the pig market crisis, more and more pig farmers are choosing to join the cooperative to hedge risks, with 62 new members added this year alone, bringing the total to 460 households. On the other hand, it is accelerating "transformation" by providing startup funding support to pig farmers who want to change careers. Since the beginning of this year, the cooperative has raised 10 million yuan in startup loans for its members, encouraging them to contract reservoirs in other places for fish farming, take on infrastructure projects at construction sites, and so on, in order to strengthen their ability to withstand market risks. Pig farmer Xiao Jinze said with emotion: "I have been raising pigs for more than ten years and have been through all kinds of ups and downs. Although pig prices are so low right now, with the strong support of the animal husbandry cooperative, I think I can overcome these difficulties."