Native black pigs in Nghe An eat vegetables and wine lees, popular during Tet

Ba Village of Huu Kiem Commune is located along National Highway 7A, on the banks of the Nam Mo River. During the days before Tet, people and vehicles passing by, going in and out of families in Ba Village are busier than usual.

At Ms. Tran Thi Lien's household, while quickly arranging the firewood that she and her children took advantage of the weekend to go up the mountain to get, Ms. Lien lit the stove to cook food to keep warm for the pigs that were about to be sold.

“Usually, I maintain a herd of about 20 pigs, and in the last half of the year, it sometimes increases to 30. The breed of pigs raised by my family and other households in the village is mainly native black pigs, bred by the households themselves,” said Ms. Tran Thi Lien.

Ms. Lien's family's livestock area is separate from the residential area, and the barns are cleaned daily so they do not affect the living environment. Ms. Lien said that households in the village mainly use banana trees and other plant-based foods for livestock, combined with regular cleaning of the barns so the environment is always guaranteed. She has just sold 7 pigs, each weighing an average of 50 - 70kg.

She said that near Tet, the price of live pigs increased compared to normal days, and the number of customers ordering was 2-3 times higher, so by the end of December, if they did not order in advance, there would not be much "goods" left to sell freely.

Opposite Ms. Lien's house, Ms. Loc Thi Kham's family has also been raising native black pigs for nearly 20 years. Ms. Kham said that although the native black pig breed does not give a large weight, it is easy to raise and the meat is delicious. Moreover, the people of Ba village mainly raise pigs with home-grown vegetables, so the cost of feed is also saved a lot.

Households only need to buy more beer residue, cassava residue mixed with chopped banana stems, or grind them with a feed grinder. Ms. Kham's herd of nearly 30 pigs is also raised in batches of about 10-15 pigs. Her daily job is to cut banana stems and chop them up for the pigs to eat. For newly raised pigs weighing less than 20kg, rice bran or corn bran mixed with chopped banana stems will be added to help the pigs grow faster.

In addition to generating income from raising black pigs, households in Ba village also make traditional wine to supply local wine and use wine residue as nutritious food for pigs.

On the occasion of Tet, every day in Ba village, there are customers coming to buy pigs, or place orders. On normal days, the price of live pigs is about 60 - 80 thousand VND/kg for pigs weighing over 20 kg, and small pigs under 20 kg cost 100 - 120 thousand VND/kg.

In addition to raising pigs for meat, some households raise piglets to maintain livestock and supply pig breeds in the area.

Ms. Mua Y Xai - President of the Women's Union of Huu Kiem commune said that for many years, Ba village has developed a model of raising local pig breeds. From 5 households supported by the District Women's Union with 20 million VND to buy 21 black pigs for raising in 2021, the women gradually multiplied the herd and spread the movement of raising native black pigs throughout the village. Up to now, the village has 140 households, all of which raise pigs, of which about 50 households regularly maintain a herd of 30 - 40 pigs such as the households of Ms. Vi Thi Ngoc, Loc Thi Ly, Loc Thi Lien, Loc Thi Kham...

Thanks to the indigenous black pig farming model, many households in Ba village have escaped poverty and become rich.

“We will continue to support and encourage women to maintain the “black pig farming village” model in a green-clean-quality direction by taking advantage of green food sources from agricultural products grown and produced by the women themselves,” said Ms. Mua Y Xai.