Loach farming sets poor households on the road to prosperity, with adult fish sold as far as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou

Li Xianzhi, 49 years old, is from Sunzhuang, Youfangdian Township, Zhengyang County. Her husband is ill and her children are in school, and her family is a poor household in the village. But instead of waiting and relying on others, she raised loaches in an idle village pond and found a way out of poverty. Today, the loaches she raises are sold to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other places.

On March 21, led by Yang Xinjian, the village's first secretary, the reporter came to Li Xianzhi's loach pond and saw many net cages inside, with loaches leaping and churning as they fed. Li Xianzhi was feeding the loaches (as shown in the photo). She said: "These loaches are my treasure for escaping poverty and becoming prosperous!"

In the past, Li Xianzhi's husband, Yang Hongsheng, worked away from home, leaving Li Xianzhi at home to care for their 3 children. But misfortune struck without warning. In 2009, Yang Hongsheng underwent surgery for a cerebral hemorrhage and could no longer do heavy work, and all three children were successively admitted to university, so the whole burden of the family fell on Li Xianzhi's shoulders alone. Later, Li Xianzhi happened to learn from television about loach farming as a way to prosperity and came up with the idea of raising loaches. So she went to Shanghai and other places to learn loach farming techniques.

In 2014, she began farming loaches. Loaches have high environmental requirements, and in the early days of starting out, many of Li Xianzhi's loaches died. But Li Xianzhi and her husband were not discouraged; they learned as they worked, and finally succeeded.

The loaches Li Xianzhi raises have tender flesh and are rich in nutrients, and they are favored by out-of-town buyers, selling to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other places, with demand outstripping supply.

To help Yang Hongsheng's family escape poverty as soon as possible, Yang Xinjian, first secretary stationed in the village from the county's United Front Work Department, not only secured 5,000 yuan in poverty assistance funds in the autumn of 2016 for Yang Hongsheng's youngest son, Yang Shanshan, but also secured a 50,000 yuan poverty alleviation subsidized-interest loan for Yang Hongsheng from the county poverty alleviation office to help his family raise loaches.

"Loach farming is a technical job," Li Xianzhi said. Sometimes when the loaches get sick, you have to find the root cause and then treat it accordingly. Li Xianzhi also raises yellow eels, and this year she plans to expand the scale.

"The loaches I raise are in short supply, and I also hope to help nearby poor households raise loaches together and become prosperous," Li Xianzhi said. Quite a few villagers have come to learn loach farming experience from her. On the day of the reporter's interview, Yang Hongsheng had been invited by several farming households from Xincai County to give a lecture. Yang Hongsheng said that in such situations, he would teach them everything he had accumulated without holding anything back.

According to Yang Xinjian, the village's first secretary, in the next step he will give more support to Yang Hongsheng and his wife, increasing efforts in land transfer and funding support.