“I am physically disabled but spiritually strong. I want to create a happy life with my own hands!” Li Mengbin, a resident in Xiaping Village, Zhoumensi Town, Zixing County-level City, said determinedly. Today, the once impoverished man has become a large pig farmer, with an investment of millions of yuan.

As a child, Li Mengbin was disabled by polio, so it was hard for him to do farm work to earn money, adding to the difficulties facing the whole family. Not long after, young Li Mengbin left his hometown and went to Guangdong, Shanghai and other places to work.

In 2006, in order to take care of his elderly parents and family, Li Mengbin decided to return to his hometown to start his own business. With the help of village officials, he raised more than 1 million yuan to contract more than 200 mu of land (about 13.3 hectares), and set up the Xiaping Poor Households Planting and Farming Cooperative to develop pig farming, oil-tea camellia planting and other industries.

At the early stage of his business, due to the lack of advanced technology and the blow of swine fever, all of Li Mengbin’s pigs died of disease. As a result, he did not get a return on his investment, and even indebted to more than 200,000 yuan of loans. In 2009, his wife, who could not bear the poverty, decided to divorce him, leaving the 3-year-old daughter to his care.

Business failure and family changes trapped Li Mengbin in hopelessness. After learning about his difficulties, relevant departments such as the Party committee and government of Zhoumensi Town and Zixing Disabled Persons’ Federation promptly reached out to him. He was registered as living in poverty, enjoying all kinds of preferential policies for precise poverty alleviation, and received support to develop pig and cattle farming.

With the strong support of these departments, Li Mengbin once again lifted up his confidence. He borrowed more than 400,000 yuan to set up a professional cooperative, leading several disabled people nearby to develop farming industry together. In order to help Li Mengbin solve technical problems, the Party committee and government of Zhoumensi Town sent him to attend vocational skills training for people with disabilities, and also sent livestock technicians to instruct him on farming techniques.

Through several years of efforts, his professional cooperative slaughters more than 400 pigs every year. There was not a single case of swine fever when African swine fever was rampant. Each year, his farm grows 10 mu of vegetables and 50 mu of watermelons and also raises more than 50 heads of cattle and 1,000 poultry birds. Today, the annual output value of the farm exceeds more than 2 million yuan, allowing him to pay off the loan and get out of poverty in 2018.

After getting out of poverty, Li Mengbin continues to help people with disabilities. The cooperative now has 14 workers, eight of whom are disabled. He also teaches farming techniques to neighbors free of charge, and has driven 10 villagers around to develop pig farming.