Veteran shares fish fry breeding experience
In Shuikou Village, Tanshui Town, Yangchun City, scattered fish ponds and hatchery pools are everywhere. Of the village's more than 3,800 residents, over 2,000 are engaged in the fish fry hatching industry. These hatchery pools, called "treasure basins," have become the economic pillar for local farmers' income growth. The person who led local farmers to breed mandarin fish fry is a veteran in the village named Fan Shaohe. He is 53 years old this year, short in stature but very talkative, with 30 years of experience in fish fry breeding. He is also the first person in Tanshui Town to introduce and figure out mandarin fish fry hatching technology. His daily work is dealing with fish fry, and he enthusiastically introduces his "fish fry wisdom" to every person who comes to seek his advice, letting mandarin fish fry hatching technology benefit the general public.
Painstakingly figuring out mandarin fish fry hatching technology
Fan Shaohe is a native of Shuikou Village, Tanshui Town, Yangchun City. After being discharged from the military in 1986 and returning to his hometown, he engaged in the breeding of the four major Chinese carps and fish fry hatching.
Because the market for the four major Chinese carps was saturated, meat fish and fish fry were not very profitable, and sometimes even lost money. In 1993, Fan Shaohe, urgently needing to transform his business, discovered through market research that mandarin fish were sold in the market as freshwater seafood at high prices and sold well, reaching over 80 yuan per jin. In Nanhai, Foshan, farming mandarin fish had become an industry that enriched local farmers and had formed a specialized market. After learning about the situation, Fan Shaohe purchased 40,000 yuan worth of mandarin fish from the Jiangmen Fisheries Research Institute and brought them back to the village to breed, hoping to achieve instant success.
However, mandarin fish, as a precious fish species, are not easy to raise, and their breeding technology is very different from that of the four major Chinese carps. Reality dealt Fan Shaohe a heavy blow. Due to lack of experience, the first batch of fish was completely lost. What made him want to cry without tears was that of the 40,000 yuan, more than 10,000 yuan was raised by selling 15 pigs over 13 days, and even the pig money went down the drain.
Refusing to bow to fate, Fan Shaohe learned from his painful experience. He found relevant books and studied hard day and night, hoping to stage a comeback. Reality still played a joke on him. The book knowledge was simply not applicable, and the second batch of fish was also lost. So Fan Shaohe embarked on a journey to seek knowledge. He visited a successful farmer in a neighboring town to learn from him, but was met with a closed door. Even his request to visit the fish fry farm was refused.
It is better to rely on oneself than on others. Calming down, Fan Shaohe drew on the military spirit of enduring hardship and decided to figure out mandarin fish breeding and hatching technology on his own. He observed the growth process of mandarin fish by the pond and gradually mastered the breeding methods. After the mandarin fish spawned, he squatted by the hatchery pool day and night, staring intently at the changes in the fry. Because the water in the pool was flowing, after a long time, Fan Shaohe felt his eyes blurring and his head spinning. When he closed his eyes, all he saw were swirling water splashes. He staggered and fell into the adjacent pool. Ignoring being soaked all over, he climbed up and continued observing. Hard work pays off. After more than a year of practice and long periods of observation, Fan Shaohe mastered the entire hatching technology process for mandarin fish, achieving a satisfactory survival rate of over 99% for fry and parent fish. This news attracted many villagers to his door, following him to work together. And Fan Shaohe did not hide his knowledge, teaching them hand by hand. After these people learned the technology, they returned to their local areas and set up mandarin fish hatcheries, bringing mandarin fish breeding and hatching technology to all parts of Tanshui.
Taking the lead in opening up mandarin fish fry distribution channels
Fan Shaohe said that to improve the efficiency of agricultural products, the key is to open up distribution channels. Nanhai, Foshan is the main production and hatching area for mandarin fish in China. Mandarin fish fry from all over are sold through Nanhai to the whole country. In recent years, due to deteriorating water quality in the Pearl River Delta, the mandarin fish hatching industry in Nanhai has gradually shifted outward. Because Yangchun has good water quality in the mountainous areas and suitable temperatures, the mandarin fish fry hatched there are of good quality, large in size, and fast-growing, and are welcomed by the market. The mandarin fish fry hatching industry in Nanhai has gradually shifted to Tanshui, Yangchun. According to national aquatic market statistics, mandarin fish fry produced in Tanshui account for 80% of the national mandarin fish fry market. The entire town has more than 100 people working as fish fry intermediaries. Currently, Fan Shaohe has 120 mu of parent fish ponds and more than 50 hatchery pools, hatching 5 billion four major Chinese carp fry and over 20 million mandarin fish fry annually.
Fan Shaohe said that at the time, the mandarin fish fry produced had to be transported to Nanhai, where Nanhai merchants would purchase them at a markup and then air-freight them to northern markets. Although Shuikou Village's mandarin fish fry had large output, it had no pricing power.
"At the time, we very much wanted to obtain sales channels. Many large farming households in the north also hoped to purchase directly from the place of origin to reduce costs, but the Nanhai merchants wouldn't let us meet the customers." Opening up this sales channel was somewhat dramatic. In 1998, several customers at the Nanhai wholesale market noticed that the large trucks transporting fish fry had Yue Q license plates. So they rented a car and followed a delivery truck returning from a delivery to Tanshui, Yangchun, then found a local passenger driver to locate Fan Shaohe. After the several guests visited the fish fry hatching operation, both sides hit it off and began cooperating, shipping directly from Tanshui. Subsequently, more people joined in, opening up the distribution channel for mandarin fish fry.
After opening up the channel, reducing transportation costs and ensuring fish fry survival rate became another challenge. Starting from 2001, Fan Shaohe gradually changed the practice of packing and air-freighting, and began using trucks to transport directly to destinations. Fan Shaohe said this was also forced by circumstances. Air transport had many troubles: too many transfer links, long time, and packed fish fry were prone to oxygen deprivation and death. Secondly, the cost was high. A single air freight cost 40,000 yuan, while truck freight was only over 10,000 yuan. Trucks have large capacity; loading 20 tons of water could transport 500,000 to 1 million fry, with a single truck's revenue reaching over 100,000 yuan. The first few attempts all failed, and Fan Shaohe lost over 2 million yuan in total. The reason was that at the time there were few highways and traffic congestion and other factors caused excessively long transportation times, resulting in fish fry deaths. With the rapid development of highways, truck transport has become the main force for fish fry shipment.
Driving surrounding farmers to develop the fish fry hatching industry
Fan Shaohe said that the great development of the mandarin fish fry hatching industry in Tanshui Town began in 1996. At that time, many farmers, upon learning that Fan Shaohe was an expert at hatching fish fry, came to seek his advice. Fan Shaohe was not a stingy person. He generously imparted all the mandarin fish fry hatching technology he had successfully figured out, driving and guiding farmers to develop the fish fry hatching industry. Many farmers, after mastering the hatching technology, went back to build hatchery pools, spreading this technology throughout Tanshui like branches and leaves.
Shuikou Village has a total of more than 3,800 people, with over 2,000 engaged in mandarin fish breeding and hatching. 95% of the village's farming households have set up fish fry farms, ranging from two to three mu to several dozen mu. Most of the newly built houses in the village in recent years were earned by farmers from raising fish fry. A few years ago, in order to better drive the village's fish fry hatching and sales, Fan Shaohe, with the support of the village committee, took the lead in establishing the Yangchun Yingtang Fishery Breeding Professional Cooperative. When someone asked him why the cooperative was named Yingtang, Fan Shaohe said the name Yingtang has a story. Shuikou Village has a fish pond with a history of more than 400 years, covering over 100 mu. The grass carp produced from this pond is called Yingtang grass carp, which has been quite famous historically for its delicious taste and fresh meat, and its annual output is booked early by people. So using the name Yingtang can enhance the cooperative's visibility.
Fan Shaohe said that currently, over 90% of the fry of the four major Chinese carps bred in Shuikou Village are used as feed for feeding mandarin fish fry, with less than 10% used for raising adult fish. This industrial chain combination not only drives the freshwater fish breeding industry but also greatly improves the output efficiency of fish ponds. One mu of fish pond can yield over 40,000 yuan in annual revenue. The annual output value of fish fry in the entire village is at least 30 million yuan. In Shuikou Village, there are not only cooperatives but also mutual aid groups established among farming households. Generally, 3 to 5 families form a group, usually helping each other with harvesting fish, feeding, shipping, and loading trucks, participating in the entire production process. The advantage of this mutual aid group is concentrating each family's labor together, saving the cost of hiring people.
Fan Shaohe's daily work task is still revolving around fish fry. When he walks around the village, villagers he meets on the roadside frequently take him home, hoping he will "guide production." "Uncle He, what new varieties do you have to introduce this year?" "Is there any problem with the fish I'm raising in this pool? If there's a problem, you must help." This shows his prestige among the villagers. When out-of-town merchants come, Fan Shaohe scoops up a basin of fish fry from the pool and, pointing to fry smaller than ants, tells the guests: "Don't underestimate the fry in this pool. In just a few days, there's an income of seven or eight thousand yuan."
Fan Shaohe said that if he hadn't taken this path back then, there wouldn't be such a good situation today. His greatest wish is that Tanshui Town can build a specialized mandarin fish market, not only allowing outside merchants to buy good fry but also continuously strengthening the local fish fry industry.