Animal husbandry has become the pillar sector in Rongchang, thanks to the local government's sharp market judgment.

"To develop local animal breeding, we need to shift the focus from the sector itself to related industries," said Wang Guangqiang, head of the Rongchang county government.

More than 10,000 peasant households in the county are engaged in modern animal husbandry and related industries, local government sources said.

In the first half of this year, per capita income of farmers reached 1,579.71 yuan, up 191 yuan compared with the same period last year, out of which 513.59 yuan came from animal breeding, a rise of 85.81 yuan year-on-year.

However, primary animal products are facing increasingly fierce market competition.

"In the past, although we had more than 70 firms engaged in fowl processing and feed industries, few of them were competitive," said Wang.

"We have to sharpen the competitive edge of these firms and rely on modern technology to develop animal husbandry," Wang said.

The government has thus mapped out supportive policies and taken favorable steps to attract external investment, and the efforts have paid off.

After the leading domestic feed enterprise Hope Group, global Fortune 500 company Gargill Corp invested $7 million in establishing a feed firm with an annual capacity of 20 tons.

A similar feed operation was also built by Sichuan Tieqi Lishi Group, one of the top 500 private corporations in China, while Jiangsu Yurun Group, the biggest pig processing company in the country, launched the largest domestic roast and frozen pork production base here, with an investment of 300 million yuan.

In the past three years, Rongchang has attracted 13 noted enterprises with an accumulated investment of 500 million yuan, with nine of them having gained GMP certification.

When put into full production, the annual accumulated revenue of these operations is estimated to reach 2 billion yuan, according to the local government.

School teachers' great contributions to the research and development is another highlight of the local animal husbandry industry.

Experts and professors from Southwest University and Chongqing Animal Husbandry Institute channeled the fruits of their research into popular feed and animal medicine products to create a total yearly output value of nearly 500 million yuan.