Wu Anlu, the owner of the pig breeding base and a local "pig breeding king," struck the first hammer to demolish his own pig farm.

Workers at the Zhenghua Pig Breeding Base of Hujiazhou Village in Nanchang County drove pigs away from the pig farm in a relocation project on December 22, 2007. [Photo: jxnews.com.cn]

Wu's farm, the largest pig breeding base around the Poyang Lake was moved from its site on December 22 out of environmental concerns, the Jiangxi Daily reported. The relocation project is part of the Jiangxi provincial government's push to protect the environment of Poyang Lake, China's largest freshwater lake.

The Zhenghua Pig Breeding Base in Nanchang County is located on an islet in the Poyang Lake. Opened with an investment of 4.8 million yuan in 2005, the farm can turn out 40,000 pigs each year.

But the government of Jiangxi Province wants to tackle the environmental problems caused by large-scale pig and fish breeding, so the pig breeding base must be moved.

According to figures from the provincial environment monitoring body, the water quality of the Poyang Lake steadily declined from 2002 to 2006. Polluted water discharged from pig farms is a primary factor affecting the lake's water quality.

The provincial government has allocated 1.3 million yuan in subsidies to Wu Anlu to reestablish his pig farm inland.

(CRI December 24, 2007)