Loach farming sets farmers in Songxi County, Nanping City, Fujian on the road to prosperity
“Although the economy has been sluggish these past two years, my loach farming cooperative can still bring everyone considerable profits, and I feel I have lived up to everyone's expectations.” said Lian Fei, a skilled loach farmer, yesterday.
A few years ago, Lian Fei was still a poor family under the family planning program in Xiatian Natural Village, Huaqiao Township, Songxi County. Although he had spent many years trying his luck elsewhere, he never made a name for himself, and in the end he followed his elderly father's advice and returned home to raise loaches and make his fortune.
However, ideals are plump but reality is bony. As for loach farming, Lian Fei was a complete “layman”. When he first started raising loaches, because he did not have a good grasp of water quality and temperature, within three days the loach fry he had invested 30,000 yuan in all died. Just when he was at his wit's end, the Huaqiao Township Family Planning Association extended an “olive branch” to him——enrolling him as a recipient of happiness project assistance, providing him with 20,000 yuan in happiness project funds and free advertising and publicity services.
With the help of the township family planning association, Lian Fei threw himself wholeheartedly into loach farming again. In order not to repeat the same mistakes, he ate and slept beside the loach ponds. Hard work pays off. In 2012, he finally broke through the difficulties and worked out a mature set of loach farming techniques, with loach yields reaching as high as 750 kg per mu. In order to expand the scale of farming, Lian Fei grew his 5 mu of loach ponds to 40 mu and established the “Feida” Loach Farming Cooperative.
When drinking water, remember its source. After becoming prosperous, Lian Fei generously taught farming techniques to the farmers who came to seek his advice, especially poor family planning households. Lian Fei not only took the initiative to contact them, but also provided a complete set of free farming technique materials, supplied market conditions and specific sales prices from all over the country, and posted product promotion information online.
Today, Lian Fei's loach farming base has reached a scale of over 100 mu, with annual sales output value exceeding 10 million yuan. His loach breeding level also ranks among the top in northern Fujian, and he has driven more than 110 farming households, covering an area of more than 1,000 mu.