How many rabbits can Qianwei sell annually? What is the output value? 3.5 million rabbits with an output value exceeding 165 million yuan—this is the remarkable report card of Qianwei's rabbit industry in 2024.

In 2025, how does Qianwei seize opportunities to achieve industrial breakthroughs with "one rabbit" and make rapid progress in rural revitalization?

Industrial Foundation: The Leap from Backyard Farming to Modernization

"We are not satisfied with small-scale operations; if we build it, we aim for a national first-class modern base," said Zhong Xiao, Chief Veterinarian of Qianwei County's Agriculture and Rural Affairs Bureau, pointing to the planning map of the Rabbit-Grain-Oil Circular Modern Agriculture Park in his office on May 12. "Currently, the scale of meat rabbit breeding bases in the county exceeds 2,000 mu, and this year's slaughter output is expected to exceed 5 million!"

Rabbit meat, a high-protein, low-fat, low-cholesterol premium meat, is highly favored for its rich nutritional value. However, constrained by traditional household backyard farming, the meat rabbit industry has long faced development bottlenecks such as difficult scale expansion and weak value-added potential, keeping the overall output value at a low level.

In 2018, Qianwei precisely anchored the strategic location advantage of Sichuan as the "No. 1 Rabbit Meat Production and Consumption Province in China," took the initiative to carry out investment promotion, introduced 145 million yuan in investment from Shandong merchants, and built a modern breeding base integrating the "five modernizations" of "excellent varieties, fine management, modern equipment, scientific epidemic prevention, and waste utilization" by benchmarking EU environmental control standards. At the same time, it integrated 6.5 million yuan in special agricultural funds, established a "research + enterprise" expert workstation, innovated the development model of "large park + small proprietors," and formed an industrial complex of "leading enterprises + cooperatives + family farms + small farmers." Through land transfer and reverse lease employment, small farmers are deeply integrated into the eco-agricultural industry chain, forming a win-win interest linkage mechanism between enterprises and farmers.

In 2020, relying on leading enterprises, Qianwei successfully established a municipal modern agricultural park and continued to steadily move towards the goal of a provincial three-star park. In 2024, with its outstanding achievements in the meat rabbit industry, Qianwei was successfully selected as a national meat rabbit industry cluster project county, marking a major leap in the high-quality development path of its meat rabbit industry and becoming a benchmark model for the development of regional characteristic agriculture.

Model Empowerment: Synergistic Efforts Across the Full Industry Chain

Entering Sichuan Jinbo Hengbang Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd. in Wuyu Town, the intelligent environmental control system is operating in an orderly manner. Tens of thousands of meat rabbits are leisurely gnawing on feed in clean, tidy, and advanced modern cages. On the large screen of the intelligent control center, key data such as temperature, humidity, and feed input are beating in real time, just like the "smart brain" of this modern breeding base, efficiently and accurately commanding every production link.

"We fully combined local realities, carefully built the breeding base according to 'EU technology + Chinese standards,' and flexibly introduced six expert teams led by Qin Yinghe, the chief scientist of the national rabbit industry system, adopting the advanced 'Internet of Things intensive farming system,'" said Luo Fengying, General Manager of Sichuan Jinbo Hengbang Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd., pointing to the screen with pride. With the help of this system, core indicators such as the breeding rate of breeding rabbits and the feed-meat ratio rank among the best in the industry. At the same time, through in-depth cooperation with six expert teams from six universities including China Agricultural University and Southwest University, the company can cultivate 100,000 high-quality Shuxing No. 1 meat rabbit supporting lines every year, successfully rising to become the Leshan Experimental Station of the National Rabbit Industry Technology System.

However, the pace of innovation has not stopped there. In the breeding process, the company has explored and formed a unique "rabbit-grain-fruit" ecological cycle model, deeply integrating traditional industries with advantageous industries and making synergistic efforts to build a complete and closed industry chain, which has become a highly demonstrative industry benchmark.

"After fermentation, rabbit manure becomes high-quality organic fertilizer. The manure of 90 rabbits is enough to supply the fertilization needs of 1 mu of farmland, and the manure of 150 rabbits can just meet the fertilization amount of 1 mu of citrus orchard. Through this ecological cycle model, the comprehensive benefit of each mu of land can be increased by about 40%," Luo Fengying patiently calculated the "ecological account."

The company has also joined forces with multiple departments such as commerce and human resources to form a special work team, carefully planned a brand layout of "regional public brand + enterprise brand + product brand" in high, middle, and low dimensions, and built a brand matrix of six brands including "Rabbit Mansion," "Wen Qingqing," and "Bailang Rabbit." Focusing on products and sales channels, it continues to promote their expansion from inside the province to outside the province and from offline to online, fully assisting the meat rabbit brand building to step onto a new stage of high-quality development.

The Code for Common Prosperity: Farmers Share Industrial Dividends

In Qianwei, the booming meat rabbit breeding industry has also attracted more and more farmers to join in, becoming the "golden key" for them to increase income and become rich.

Bao Jian, the person in charge of Leshan Xiaobaitu Agricultural Development Co., Ltd., is one of the many participants. In 2024, Bao Jian came to Jingu Village, Jiujing Town, Qianwei County, cooperated with the village collective economy, and invested more than 1 million yuan to start the meat rabbit breeding business. By the end of 2024, the output value of his farm had exceeded 500,000 yuan.

When seeing Bao Jian, he was patiently instructing the breeders on breeding key points in the rabbit shed. "The 42-day breeding model we use has greatly improved the breeding efficiency of meat rabbits, and the development prospect is very promising," Bao Jian said. The farm currently has more than 2,000 breeding rabbits, plans to introduce about 500 more this year, and will also upgrade the temperature control equipment in the shed, striving to slaughter 100,000 meat rabbits by the end of the year, with an estimated income of 4 million yuan.

It is understood that up to now, there have been 12 meat rabbit farms (households) in Qianwei County with an annual slaughter of more than 10,000 rabbits, mainly distributed in towns such as Wuyu, Dingwen, Shoubao, Yuping, Shuangxi, and Jiujing, forming a rather large-scale industry cluster that drives many local farmers to increase their income and become rich.

From the past "scattered farmers" to the current march towards a national "industry cluster," Qianwei's "one rabbit" has made a determined leap, jumping out of a path of agricultural modernization full of hope and vitality in hilly areas.

Next, Qianwei will fully advance the implementation of the national meat rabbit industry cluster project. Taking the construction of a southwest seed industry base as a key initiative, it will comprehensively enhance the core competitiveness of the meat rabbit seed industry and solidify the foundation for industrial development. In terms of brand building, it will continue to deepen the cultivation of local brands such as "Bailang Rabbit", leverage the leading role of key enterprises, radiate to surrounding towns to vigorously develop rabbit sheds under village collective economies, strive to add 1.5 million rabbits to production capacity, and make efforts to push the county's meat rabbit slaughter volume to 5 million, further expanding the advantages of industrial scale. At the same time, it is committed to building "Qianwei Rabbit" into a well-known brand. Through the integrated development of industries, more farmers will be enabled to share the fruits of development, painting a new picture of "rapid" wealth-driven rural revitalization on the path of rural revitalization.(Text/Photos by Luo Jianwu, Li Xudong)