Giant salamander farming helps Sun Shengguan realize his dream of prosperity

The giant salamander, whose scientific name is Andrias davidianus, is a national second-class protected amphibious wild animal that lives year-round in wild mountain streams, and few people have ever seen its "true form." But Sun Shengguan of Runan County discovered a business opportunity in the giant salamander. After obtaining a farming permit, he began raising giant salamanders and even brought them to the dining table, making them a delicacy that locals talk about. At the same time, he also founded a cooperative that has attracted over a hundred households to join, getting more villagers to start raising giant salamanders, making it another "magic weapon" for increasing income and achieving prosperity.

Arriving at Sun Shengguan's giant salamander farming base, one walks into pitch-black rooms where only the sound of flowing water can be heard, along with waves of coolness. Shining a flashlight around, it turns out the rooms are filled with small pools built from cement, and every pool is stocked with giant salamanders. Some of these giant salamanders are nearly one meter long, while others are still fry; when they sense the light, they begin to retreat. Sun Shengguan told reporters that giant salamanders like low temperatures and dark, damp environments, and that raising them requires great care, frequent observation, and familiarity with their growth habits.

Talking about his original motivation for farming giant salamanders, Sun Shengguan said that a chance opportunity let him see the business opportunity in giant salamander farming, so he conducted investigations and studies in many places and, taking advantage of the unique advantages of the fish resources of Suya Lake and the natural environment, began his farming journey.

Once he had mastered the techniques, Sun Shengguan gradually began to expand his farming scale. After testing that his hometown's water quality and climate met the standards, Sun Shengguan and the cooperative members jointly invested more than 20 million yuan to build a wild giant salamander domestication and breeding base. At the same time, he also opened a farmhouse restaurant, combining farming with dining and bringing giant salamanders to the table. Today, the giant salamanders Sun Shengguan raises are not only sold at his own farmhouse restaurant and base, but he has also reached a cooperation agreement with a catering company in Zhengzhou, supplying ten tons of giant salamanders annually for sales and authorized product development in the Zhengzhou area.

Today, Sun Shengguan's giant salamander farming business is thriving. The facility has built two large breeding workshops covering 45 mu, raising nearly 230,000 giant salamanders. This year, it can reach 200,000 jin of commercial fish for sale, with profits of around 15 million yuan and an output value of about 120 million yuan, with products sold to the surroundings of major cities such as Zhengzhou, Beijing and Guangdong. The cooperative has also been rated as a Ministry of Agriculture aquatic healthy farming demonstration site and a Zhumadian City farmers' cooperative demonstration cooperative, and has become a council member unit of the Henan Province Giant Salamander Protection and Development Association.

Prosperity does not make him forget his fellow villagers. In order to help local villagers increase their income, Sun Shengguan established a giant salamander farming cooperative. The cooperative adopts forms such as capital or land shares, growing from just a few people initially to over a hundred now. Through fully funded custodial farming or teaching techniques for self-farming, it drives the people around Runan County to participate in wild giant salamander farming.

For targeted poverty alleviation to help poor households escape poverty, Sun Shengguan devised a unified model: the cooperative coordinates with the government to uniformly build breeding workshops for poor households, uniformly supply fry, uniformly provide training, uniformly distribute fish bait, uniformly carry out epidemic prevention, uniformly sell, uniformly purchase, and uniformly return profits, returning 20 yuan per jin to poor households. If each poor household produces 2,000 jin of commercial giant salamanders a year, they can earn 40,000 yuan from labor alone, which can achieve poverty alleviation.

Sun Shengguan said that farming giant salamanders has broad development prospects and huge potential. Giant salamanders not only have very high edible value, but also high medicinal and ornamental value, and are therefore very popular in the market. When talking about future development, he is full of confidence.

Sun Shengguan said: "The edible value of the giant salamander lies in its delicious taste, and it can be developed into many dishes for everyone to enjoy. Its medicinal value can not only improve people's immunity, but also has many benefits for preventing and treating cancer and promoting the growth of various tissue cells. Its ornamental value is that it comes in several colors and can be viewed in parks. Our development plan is to reach about one million jin per year in the next three years, with an output value of 4 billion yuan. Now the giant salamander has already reached the common dining table and reached a level where it can be sold to the public, so its development potential is very great."