Gansu to further promote acclaimed cooperative model

"Since local households have clustered for development, our production has expanded and profits have increased as more modern technologies have been introduced," he said.

"With a focus on breeding and a combination of traditional and modern methods ... the breeding ability of yaks has been improved, the variety of yaks has increased, and profits from raising yaks have grown, thus increasing farmers' incomes."

According to Gongbao, households that raised about 100 yaks each used to earn annual incomes of between 50,000 and 60,000 yuan in the past. Now, they earn about 120,000 yuan ($16,894) per year on average.

With the support of local governments and experts — particularly Long and his team, who have provided farmers and herdsmen with great technical guidance — cooperatives in the area have made rapid progress in ecological protection and scientific grass storage, he said.

"Local households are now able to make reasonable use of grasslands and scientifically raise yaks, which gives them more confidence in the future development of the animal husbandry industry," he said.

Gongbao said his cooperative would spare no effort to develop more sales stores for agricultural and livestock products to increase their market presence in the years to come.

A large-scale slaughtering and processing base is now being constructed in Luqu to carry out processing and cold-chain transportation.

"And we will use online and other means to further promote our green and dairy products in the plateau region to other parts of the country, achieving complete and large-scale development," he said.

"We will further expand the scale of cooperatives, broaden income channels and lead the local people to increase their incomes and become rich in the months ahead."

Gannan prefecture, which sits at a high altitude, is suitable for developing the animal husbandry industry, he added.

Contact the writers at zhengcaixiong@chinadaily.com.cn