Loach farming triggers a new wave of farmers getting rich

In the third month of spring, grass grows and orioles fly, and the loaches are plump and fine. On the morning of March 9, farmer Wang Tao of the Qianying villager group in Xiwang Village, Shuikou Town, Lai'an County, held in both hands the live, jumping loaches just caught from his own pond, still spitting out fishy foam, his face beaming with joy. "Don't look down on these tiny loaches. These days I can catch 3,000 jin a day and sell them for 40,000 yuan!" In the large plastic basin, hundreds upon hundreds of loaches churned without stop, as if leaping and celebrating for the scene of abundance before their eyes.

Wang Tao, not yet 30, is already a well-known wealth-building expert around the town. In 2009, just after turning 20, Wang Tao returned home from the army and resolved to leave the small mountain village and make his mark in the big city of Shanghai. In 2014, while his mobile phone business was booming, Wang Tao happened to meet a person from Taiwan, China, who was engaged in loach farming. In their conversations, the loach, known as "ginseng in the water," deeply attracted Wang Tao with its relatively high nutritional value and broad market prospects. With the help of this benefactor, Wang Tao went to the Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences to specifically study loach farming techniques. In 2015, after struggling in Shanghai for 6 years, Wang Tao took the "first bucket of gold" he had dug up in life and, without hesitation, returned to his old home in Shuikou Town, Lai'an, to begin the road of returning home to start a business.

Once on the road of entrepreneurship, no hardship could stop him. His family did not agree at first: "You have already earned several million yuan outside, enough to last a lifetime. Why keep fussing around?" Wang Tao did not think so. "I am still young and still need to keep striving. I cannot just sit and eat away my savings and live a steady life for a lifetime." In his view, striving is the most dazzling undertone of youth. However, farming loaches in Xiwang Village was somewhat unrealistic. The village had no large-area ponds, only one small hill after another. "Yu Gong could still move mountains, so why can't I dig up hills and build ponds?" And so, with a tenacity and drive that would not give up until reaching the Yellow River, Wang Tao actually used an excavator to turn the hills into ponds. The ground was dug, the roads were paved, the office building was built, the wires and cables were put up... After the infrastructure was completed, the Chuzhou Quzhiyuan Ecological Agriculture Co., Ltd. that Wang Tao registered was also officially opened, and loach fry hatched from the greenhouse began to be released into the various mud ponds.

Hard work pays off. "In a year, the 300 mu of contracted ponds can produce more than 200,000 jin of loach, at more than ten yuan per jin. After deducting land rent, staff expenses, farming costs, and so on, the annual net income can reach six or seven hundred thousand yuan," Wang Tao introduced happily.

Getting rich, he did not forget his neighbors. In nearly two years since returning to the village to start his business, Wang Tao has brought more than 20 households in Xiwang Village to join in, providing villagers with one-stop loach farming services such as loach fry, farming techniques, farming maintenance, and sales channels. Under his leadership, an ecological farming farm was also established, attracting farmers from other villages and places to voluntarily inspect and willingly join the farming ranks. Fu Mingxing, a villager from Huangnigang Town, Nanqiao District, excitedly told the reporter: "I only need to provide the pond and buy the loach fry. I don't have to worry about anything else. Wang Tao gives me unified technical guidance and unified sales and delivery for me. This year I plan to make a 20-mu pond and work behind Wang Tao!" As a young Communist Party member, Wang Tao said: "As long as the thinking is right and the person is diligent, starting a business in the countryside can still show one's talents and accomplish great things. As long as you persist, you will certainly be able to help parents and fellow villagers get rich and live a beautiful life through industrial poverty alleviation."