Crayfish Farming: A Path to Prosperity for Farmers
"This year I farmed 40 mu of crayfish, with a net income of 1,500 yuan per mu, and the net income from rice was 600 yuan per mu." In Sanliu Township, Huoqiu County, Anhui Province, farmer Song Guoyou happily pulled a net from the field and placed the crayfish into a basin, harvesting this season's crayfish and preparing to plant rice seedlings. From just over ten mu last year to 40 mu this year, Song Guoyou has already tasted the sweet rewards of crayfish farming.
The lively, hopping crayfish have become a new path for farmers in Sanliu Township to escape poverty and achieve prosperity.
Accompanied by Li Yue, deputy county head of Huoqiu County, our reporter visited the ten-thousand-mu demonstration zone of the Huoqiu County Rice-Fishery Integrated Farming Base in Sanliu Township. The central area of this demonstration zone covers Laoji Village, Shuangta Village, and Sanliu Village in Sanliu Township, and currently has 8 cooperatives with more than 1,300 households, including 281 impoverished households totaling 561 people.
In the past, this area was mainly engaged in grain production. The low-lying land produced only one season of rice per year, and was left fallow in winter. Now, some people who had gone out to work have returned home, using the farming techniques they learned elsewhere to raise crayfish in rice paddies, and reaping returns in the very same year. Driven by their example, the people in the demonstration zone have continuously expanded their crayfish farming area. Over the past two years, Sanliu Township in Huoqiu County has also vigorously promoted crayfish farming, and both the output and output value of crayfish have been greatly increased.
"There are three farming models: rice-crayfish rotation, rice-crayfish symbiosis, and year-round specialized crayfish farming. Our township currently mainly uses rice-crayfish rotation. Now is the crayfish harvesting season, followed by rice transplanting. The ecological chain is very good. Since we started farming crayfish, many birds have come. Through the integrated development of agriculture and aquaculture, farmers are being lifted out of poverty and onto the path to prosperity." According to Sun Guangjie, Party Secretary of Sanliu Township in Huoqiu County, at 3 a.m. every day, the crayfish from Sanliu Township are sent to the township's trading market for sale, and then shipped overnight to various places to ensure the freshness of the crayfish.
At present, more than 80 households in Sanliu Township have acquired over 100 mu of crayfish farming land through land transfers. While helping the people get rich through work, this has also greatly improved the social atmosphere. Sun Guangjie said: "In the past, when farming was slack, the people of Laoji Village would play cards, fight, and drink, forming a phenomenon of 'two fights and one drink,' causing social instability and prominent conflicts. Now the farmers get up at two or three in the morning to harvest crayfish, finish trading by five or six, and spend the morning preparing the fields. They are busy and occupied, and the social atmosphere has improved."
According to Sun Guangjie, because of the large volume of crayfish coming onto the market, customers from Hefei, Wuxi, Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Ningbo, and other places have been drawn here to buy crayfish. Now the crayfish market in Huoqiu County is also more prosperous. During peak periods, dozens of truckloads of crayfish are sent out every morning, amounting to more than 60,000 jin, and the entire township has more than 40 purchasing points. This has also boosted the prosperity of the breakfast market, and breakfast shops near the purchasing points are bustling with customers.
To promote rice-crayfish rotation, Sanliu Township has actively carried out publicity and guidance, and each year invests 150,000 yuan in fiscal funds to pump water and irrigate fields for crayfish farming. Sanliu Township has also invited scientific and technical personnel from the Lu'an City and Huoqiu County fisheries and science association departments to train nearly a thousand people, and to provide guidance in the fields.
In 2016, Sanliu Township alone lifted 286 households out of poverty, of which 178 households escaped poverty directly through crayfish farming.