Aohan sheep industry helps Du'an rural vitalization

The sculpture at the Aohan sheep breeding base in Du'an Yao autonomous county. [Photo/Chinanews.com]

Located in the mountainous area of Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, Hechi's Du'an Yao autonomous county has been promoting the development of the Aohan sheep industry to increase farmers' incomes and to propel rural vitalization efforts.

Aohan sheep is a cross-breed of high-end Australian mutton sheep breeds. It boasts advantageous characteristics like high reproduction rates, fast growth rates, high meat production rates, good meat quality, and easy to feed. In addition, Du'an has advantages like abundant grass resources and convenient transportation in the urban area to develop its sheep industry.

The county has built the Aohan sheep industrial park, which covers an area of more than 1,300 mu (86.7 hectares) and is home to more than 20 Aohan sheep breeding centers, forming a whole industry chain covering breeding bases, fattening bases, cold chain processing plants, as well as feed processing plants. Through its success, the sheep industry has helped more than 200,000 people increase their incomes.

Li Miao, the financial director of Guangxi Aodu Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Technology, said the income generated from raising Aohan sheep is 100 yuan ($15) per sheep. If the villagers' cooperative raises 1,000 sheep and puts them out to slaughter twice a year, they can earn 200,000 yuan per year.

As the ethnic autonomous region with the largest rural impoverished population in China, Guangxi's 6.34 million registered impoverished people, 5,379 impoverished villages, and 54 impoverished counties were all lifted out of poverty by the end of 2020.