Rex Rabbit King Builds Wealth Through Farming and Does Not Forget His Neighbors
On April 24, when the reporter met Wang Xuecheng, a villager of Huangfu Village, Zhangguang Town, Nanqiao District, Chuzhou City, known as the "Rex Rabbit King" of eastern Anhui, he was busy at his own rex rabbit demonstration breeding base. He told the reporter that the project is planned with an investment of nearly 10 million yuan, covers an area of 146.7 mu, and is a comprehensive demonstration breeding base integrating breeding, slaughtering, processing, and sales.
Wang Xuecheng, now 50 years old, was born with a deformity in the fingers of his right hand, and his wife is also disabled. The whole family once depended on farming a few mu of poor land to get by. To change their impoverished situation, he once tried raising pigs, but the returns were not ideal. In 2006, by chance, he was tempted when he saw information that rex rabbit farming required little investment, produced quick results, and was easy to raise. He bought relevant books, visited Anhui Agricultural University, the Anhui Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and several domestic rex rabbit farms, consulted rabbit-raising experts and professors, and borrowed 40,000 yuan to introduce 100 breeding rabbits, embarking on the entrepreneurial path of rex rabbit farming.
Because his farming techniques were not yet up to standard, more than 500 young rabbits in Wang Xuecheng's first batch died in large numbers. He did not become discouraged. Using support funds from the district disabled persons' federation's "Thousand-Yuan Project," he continued farming, achieved success that winter, and made a profit. After several years of effort, he became an expert in raising rex rabbits and gradually embarked on the road to prosperity.
After becoming wealthy, he did not forget his neighbors. In 2008, he took the initiative to provide breeding rabbits and free technical support to more than 20 villagers who were learning farming techniques from him, and held rex rabbit farming technology training classes many times. He promised that if villagers encountered problems in raising rex rabbits, he would come whenever called. On December 21, 2010, after receiving a call for help about sick breeding rabbits at Li Chao's home in Yuansong Village, Wang Xuecheng rode more than 20 kilometers through snow to provide treatment. On the way back, because the snow-covered road was slippery, he and his vehicle fell into a mountain gully and he lost consciousness. Fortunately, passing villagers discovered him in time and sent him to the hospital, saving his life.
In recent years, Wang Xuecheng has continued to expand the scale of farming and, together with other farmers, established the Chuzhou Jinsheng Rex Rabbit Breeding Professional Cooperative. The cooperative implements "small-group raising, large-scale operation, resource sharing, and shared risks," and provides unified breeding stock supply, prevention and treatment, sales, and feed supply. At present, the cooperative's membership has grown to 140 households, including 25 households with disabled family members, with an annual output of nearly 300,000 commercial rabbits. The cooperative was once rated as a municipal-level demonstration farmers' professional cooperative and one of the province's top ten disabled persons' planting and breeding poverty-alleviation demonstration bases; he himself has also been honored as one of Anhui Province's top ten disabled persons' entrepreneurial stars, a model of self-reliance in Anhui Province, and a "Good Person of China."