Jia Zhisheng of Baojing farms giant salamanders and leads villagers onto the path to prosperity

"To farm giant salamanders, you need to keep a slight flow of water, with the inlet and outlet opened at the same time." "The water level is best kept 2 to 5 cm above the salamander's back, not too deep." "You must clear out the fish waste every day to keep the water quality from deteriorating." ... On the afternoon of May 19, in Xianxing Group, Bamao Village, Wanmipo Town, Baojing County, "giant salamander farming expert" Jia Zhisheng was teaching local farmers the techniques for farming wild giant salamanders, to unanimous praise from the crowd.

Jia Zhisheng, 35 this year, is a native of Bamao Village. In June 2012, while working away from home, he returned to start a business. With support from departments including the prefecture and county agriculture, animal husbandry and fisheries, and science and technology associations, he set his sights on the market prospects for farmed giant salamanders, drew on the village's excellent geographical advantages for cold-water fish farming, raised more than 100,000 yuan in funds from various sources, and built a giant salamander ecological breeding base, breeding high-quality fish such as wild giant salamanders and Chinese giant salamanders through artificial self-propagation and self-rearing. He organized and established the Baojing Special Cold-Water Fish Breeding, Production and Marketing Professional Technical Giant Salamander Association, serving as its chairman, and encouraged local villagers to raise giant salamanders together; using scientific and technological methods, they implemented unified supply of fry, unified cultivation and management, and unified sales, achieving relatively good economic returns.

At present, Jia Zhisheng and local villagers have farmed more than 10,000 wild giant salamanders, Chinese giant salamanders and other species, with products sold at more than 300 yuan per kg to Chongqing, Guangxi, Guizhou, Guangdong and other provinces and municipalities. He has also adopted methods such as selling on credit and providing free technical services to support poor villagers in farming giant salamanders, letting villagers pursue "money prospects" alongside him. Under his leadership, more than 130 local households have joined the association, and through farming and selling giant salamanders, everyone's average annual income has increased from more than 2,000 yuan to more than 10,000 yuan, gradually setting out on the road out of poverty toward prosperity.