Development strategy supports burgeoning chicken breeding industry to take flight in Tibet (2)

Chicken eggs are transported on a conveyor belt before entering the health inspection zone. (People’s Daily Online/Li Haixia)

By developing chicken breeding as a pillar industry, Shannan city in southwest China’s Tibetan Autonomous Region has managed to consolidate the outcomes of poverty alleviation and further increased farmers’ and herders’ incomes.

Under the joint efforts of Shannan and Hubei province in central China, which provides pairing assistance to Shannan, a research institute on chicken breeding was established. Hubei tailored a development strategy for Shannan, which set a goal to establish a pillar industry, a leading enterprise, a number of smaller enterprises providing support services, a scientific research institute and an industrial chain. Based on this development strategy, the research institute was expected to play an important role in the protection of chicken species, the selection and breeding of high-quality chicken species, the development of food products, animal nutrition, and high value-added food processing, among other areas.

In 2020, an agricultural and animal husbandry company based in Wuhan, capital city of Hubei province, signed an agreement with Shannan on the construction of a smart chicken breeding company. Upon its completion, the project, with a total investment of 500 billion yuan, will become the largest smart chicken breeding company in all of Tibet, as well as the largest in southwest China in terms of single-unit capacity.

At present, major production facilities have started operations, with more than 300 people having taken part in the construction of the project. Moreover, 120 people have secured jobs after the initiation of the project, with an average monthly salary of about 6,000 yuan.