Cold-water fish farming leads villagers onto the road to prosperity

Huizhou-style houses stand against the hillsides one after another; streams run through the village; fish swim merrily in pond after pond... In recent years, Gaoshan Fishing Village in Zhujia Village, Shizimiao Town, Luanchuan County, Luoyang, has led villagers onto the road to prosperity by farming cold-water fish.

"Our environment here is suitable for farming cold-water fish," Zhu Liucang, Party secretary of Zhujia Village, told reporters. "The lowest water temperature for farming rainbow trout cannot be below 6°C, and the highest cannot exceed 22°C. Here, under normal conditions the water temperature is no lower than 8°C, and during the dog days of summer it does not exceed 20°C."

The unique water resources gave villagers hope of prosperity. In 2013, the Party committee and government of Shizimiao Town called on villagers to dig ponds and raise fish, developing the cold-water fish industry.

The natural water resource conditions were there, but the villagers had never farmed cold-water fish and lacked farming experience and professional farming techniques. To solve this problem, at the start of development, Shizimiao Town leaders visited Huairou, Xi'an and other places to learn from others' aquaculture experience. At the same time, they invited technical experts from the Luoyang Aquatic Research Institute to provide on-site farming guidance.

At present, Gaoshan Fishing Village has built 13 ecological fish ponds, 39 in total, with an area of more than 14,000 sq m, farming more than 300,000 cold-water fish, mainly rainbow trout.

"We sell to all parts of the country at 20-25 yuan per jin, and selling ten or twenty thousand tons a year is no problem," Zhu Liucang said with delight. Locally, they mainly sell to rural restaurants (nongjiale), and once the fish reaches the dining table, the price more than doubles.

Besides cold-water fish farming, Gaoshan Fishing Village has also renovated the houses in Huizhou style, building rural courtyards and rural guesthouses. Zhujia Village currently has 8 rural restaurants above the designated scale, each with annual gross income of about 700,000 to 800,000 yuan.

It is understood that Gaoshan Fishing Village's cold-water fish farming has an annual output value of more than 15 million yuan and profits of more than 2 million yuan. At the same time, farming, catering and rural guesthouses have driven more than 300 local people into employment, with per capita annual income increasing by more than 8,000 yuan. In 2014, Zhujia Village successfully shed its "poverty cap" and has since won honors including "National Leisure Fisheries Demonstration Base" and "Most Beautiful Village in Henan Province."

"The scale of the fish ponds is now relatively stable, and it is not appropriate to expand the area further. Next, we plan to focus on building rural guesthouses integrating catering, accommodation and entertainment." Speaking of future development plans, Zhu Liucang was full of confidence.